Hellenic community helps UC San Diego become a leader in Greek studies.

By Judy Piercey

Universities traditionally have the most luck in their development strategies among people with close ties to the school — such as alumni and parents of students. But a concerted effort to solicit donations within the community (regardless of its educational ties to the college) has brought to fruition a philosophy professor’s dream of the University of California, San Diego, becoming a world-class leader in Greek studies.

Georgios H. Anagnostopoulos, a UCSD philosophy professor and most recently interim dean of the university’s division of arts and humanities, felt his undergraduate students knew very little about the origins of democracy and various philosophical movements, all of which have foundations in Greek history.

The history department at UCSD currently has no Greek-history professors, but that will change with the addition of three chairs in Greek history. The campus recently created the Gerry and Jeannie Ranglas Chair in Ancient Greek History and the Alkiviadis Vassiliadis Chair in Byzantine Greek History with donations totaling more than $1 million from San Diego’s Greek community.

When the $500,000 goal for the modern Greek history chair is met, UCSD will become the only university in the United States to have endowed faculty chairs for all three major eras of Greek history.

At the University of California, endowed chairs are teaching and research positions occupied by distinguished scholars. The university provides the teaching and research position and pays the salary of the people appointed to the endowed chairs.

The permanent endowed fund created by philanthropic gifts provides perpetual annual income in support of the teaching and research activities of the person holding the chair.

To help UCSD become an epicenter of Greek studies, Anagnostopoulos approached community leaders in Greek cultural organizations in San Diego. In less than two years, this fundraising campaign — using volunteers within the community to focus on one-on-one personal contacts — raised $1 million to finance the first two chairs. The third, in modern Greek history, is nearly funded.

“Everything was timing, and Georgios was in a position to make a difference,” says Carol Vassiliadis, who, along with Gerry and Jeannie Ranglas, presented leadership gifts for the first two chairs. “He gathered the right people around him to achieve this goal. He convinced everyone that funding these endowed chairs is vital for the Greek community and important for UCSD.”

The passion Anagnostopoulos exuded for the project persuaded Vassiliadis and other individuals to become supporters.

“I was surprised to learn that there was no Greek history chair at UCSD, and only one on the West Coast,” she says. “Georgios asked me if endowing a chair would be something I’d like to do in my late husband’s memory. My husband’s heritage was Byzantine, and he loved all things Greek — he would have been so happy to help.

“Getting funding for the three endowed chairs wasn’t an easy task,” she explains. “The problem was that, although important to society and education, it’s not life and death. However, there is no complete understanding of world history without Greek history as a foundation.”

The successful volunteer fundraising effort was coordinated by the UCSD development office. Money raised for the endowed Greek history faculty chairs contributes to the university’s $1 billion initiative, The Campaign for UCSD: Imagine What’s Next.

Key to the success of the fundraising campaign was appealing to the cultural pride that is evident in San Diego’s large Greek community, rather than simply approaching them with the idea that it was good for the school.

“Georgios had to hit people intellectually with the concept, and help them understand the value,” Vassiliadis adds. “That’s where the difficulty was. Some people had the means but, surprisingly, didn’t give. Yet modest donations were made by people who probably couldn’t afford to contribute a lot … but felt it was right because they believed in the idea.”

“Many universities own a chair somewhere in the field of Greek history,” says Daniel Vickers, chair of the UCSD history department, “but nowhere in America will there be a concentration of eminent historians in one department to match ours.”

Adds Anagnostopoulos, “We are most grateful to the Greek community in San Diego for providing UCSD powerful tools to attract and retain distinguished faculty in Greek history.”

Judy Piercey is the director of development communications at the University of California,San Diego, and can be reached at jpiercey@ucsd.edu.