{"id":207,"date":"2011-12-21T14:00:54","date_gmt":"2011-12-21T14:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vandfam.net\/dev\/wordpressmu\/college\/?p=207"},"modified":"2011-12-21T14:00:54","modified_gmt":"2011-12-21T14:00:54","slug":"alumni-couple-supports-the-humanities-with-distinguished-professorship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=207","title":{"rendered":"Alumni couple supports the humanities with distinguished professorship"},"content":{"rendered":"
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From left, Don Hart and Bobby Gitenstein<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For Barbara \u201cBobby\u201d Gitenstein and Don Hart, choosing to support the humanities at UNC was an easy decision.<\/p>\n

Both earned their doctorate degrees in the humanities at Carolina \u2014 Gitenstein in English in 1975 and Hart in philosophy in 1981. The couple grew up in the same small town in south Alabama and chose Carolina for its \u201cexcellent\u201d English and philosophy departments. They formed lasting relationships with several faculty members who served as important mentors for them in their careers.<\/p>\n

Both established distinguished careers in higher education and the humanities. Gitenstein has enjoyed a long career as an English professor and administrator, and she is now president of the College of New Jersey, where she became the institution\u2019s first woman president in 1999. \u00a0Hart has taught philosophy, directed an honors program, and most recently been involved with computing in the humanities.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs an academic administrator and a faculty member, I genuinely believe that we in higher education do some of the most important work in the world,\u201d Gitenstein said. \u201cI am convinced that the lessons and skills learned in humanities education can make the world a better place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gitenstein and Hart recently decided to create a legacy for the humanities by including a provision in their wills to create the R. Barbara Gitenstein and Donald B. Hart Distinguished Professorship in the Humanities. This gift will establish an endowment for a distinguished professor in any of the humanities disciplines and will ensure that future generations of Carolina students continue to benefit from the high standard of excellence and teaching in the humanities that they enjoyed as Carolina students.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are convinced that a humanities education was the foundation for our success in life, and that the discipline of critical thinking should be the means for civic engagement and communication,\u201d Gitenstein said. <\/a><\/p>\n

Editor’s note: This article by Joanna Worrell Cardwell (M.A. ’06) appeared in the spring ’11 issue of<\/em> Carolina Arts & Sciences <\/a>magazine.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For Barbara \u201cBobby\u201d Gitenstein and Don Hart, choosing to support the humanities at UNC was an easy decision.<\/p>\n

Both earned their doctorate degrees in the humanities at Carolina \u2014 Gitenstein in English in 1975 and Hart in philosophy in 1981. The couple grew up in the same small town in south Alabama and chose Carolina for its \u201cexcellent\u201d English and philosophy departments. They formed lasting relationships with several faculty members who served as important mentors for them in their careers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,21,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-foundation","category-news","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}