Wabash College President Patrick E. White and Dean of the College Gary A. Phillips today announced the appointment of Professor Leslie Preston Day to the Charles D. and Elizabeth S. LaFollette Distinguished Professorship in the Humanities. The announcement was made at the regular meeting of the faculty, and resulted in a lengthy standing ovation. Professor Day, an American School alumna, Managing Committee member, and 2005-6 Whitehead Professor, becomes only the fourth person to hold the LaFollette Chair since its establishment in 1978. A teacher and scholar of classical studies, she becomes the first person outside the Religion Department and the first woman to hold the chair. Religion professors Eric Dean, Raymond Williams, and William Placher previously held the position. “The LaFollette Distinguished Professor of Humanities chair brings together the threads of excellence in teaching, engaged support and service to younger scholars, and humanistic research and scholarship of international quality and importance,” added Dean Phillips. “She has a demonstrated record of teaching, scholarship, and service in the humanities befitting the past holders of the Chair — Eric Dean, Raymond Williams, and Bill Placher.” The five-year appointment is effective immediately. For the full article go to Wabash College web site at http://www.wabash.edu/news/displaystory.cfm?news_ID=7306/.