A University of Wisconsin organization formed by faculty wives in 1901 is still going strong today, with more than 400 members charged with the mission of generating scholarships for UW students.
University League, composed of faculty, students and the greater Madison community, aims to promote educational and social activities for its members more than a century after its inception.
The first meeting was held in spring of 1901 on the lawn of the wife of one of the pioneer members of the faculty. Today, University League members participate in volunteer and social opportunities with the overarching mission of raising scholarship funds.
“From among the 40 women present, committees were promptly formed … Teas, receptions and lawn parties were planned as suitable ways to promote social contacts for faculty as well as women students. Opportunities for helping girl students were found,” the Capital Times reported in 1929.
The largest volunteer program currently running is the University League’s partnership with Bookworms, president Kay Jarvis-Sladky said.
“Volunteers from the University League go out to Head Start programs, which promote pre-literacy preparation, and read a book to children ages two to four,” Jarvis-Sladky said.“This program runs once a month for eight months a year, more or less the school year.”
General scholarships from the League are funded by membership dues, donations and their annual scholarship benefit invitation.
Jarvis-Sladky said membership dues are $30 a year. The League is efficient with their dues, she said, as about 90 percent go back to scholarships.
“When we register our members on an annual basis there is an opportunity at every one of the activities to make a scholarship benefit,” Helen Lackore, endowed scholarship head, said.
The League also raises funds through a scholarship benefit invitation that is sent out to the members at the end of January. This fundraiser raised $15,000 in 2014, contributing to the total of $22,800 the organization donated in general scholarships.
General scholarships are not designated in memorial for a certain individual or to a certain college at the university, Lackore said.
“University League does not make any decisions about where the scholarship money goes or to whom it goes,” Lackore said. “It simply goes into the scholarship funds that each college has to offer to students and then whoever deals with scholarship money at the various colleges makes the decision about how many people receive a scholarship, how much money that is and who they are.”
In addition to general scholarships, the University League offers endowed scholarships which are generated when endowments are made by members in honor or memorial of a friend or family member, Lackore said. In 2014, more than $68,000 was donated in endowed scholarships.
“Some of those scholarships are not designated to any particular school,” Lackore said, “and some of them are. Whatever university college our endowed givers want their endowment to go to, then they have the opportunity to designate.”
For those who do not wish to designate, the foundation manages the endowment. Jarvis-Sladky said there is a fair distribution of endowment scholarships spread across the university. The University League gives the money to the schools, and those schools or colleges decide how to divide it up, she said.
Jarvis-Sladky said University League is always looking to expand membership in hopes to fund more scholarships and reach more Head Start programs around Dane County.
