HSS Highlights: Kitch Foundation Awards $50,000 to the School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Professors Jack and Laura Kitch
The School of Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) is pleased to announce a $50,000 award to the Dean's Strategic Fund from the Kitch Foundation, a charitable organization that funds scholarships and other programs in higher education. The foundation’s purpose is to "invest in the future of our society today by investing in the lives of our young scholars." The foundation has been especially generous to HSS students with the $50,000 grant this year and funding a technology connectivity program for students in 2020–21 to support online learning during the pandemic.
The late Laura and Jack Kitch launched the foundation to give back to the institution to which they had devoted so much of their professional careers. Both were professors at Brooklyn College—Laura in the Department of Sociology, and Jack in the Department of English. For the couple, higher education was more than a career; it was a way of life. They viewed education as a gift that one could offer to the younger generations and subsequently to society as a whole, since the future of a society depends upon the education of its people.
Laura Kitch was a faculty member of the Department of Sociology from 1966 until her retirement in 2002. A native New Yorker, Laura took her first degree from Hunter College and her Ph.D. from the New School. She served as chair of the Department of Sociology for many years and as interim provost from December 1997 until September 2000. In 1971, she married her colleague, Jack Kitch, professor of English. Jack was from the Midwest and took his M.A. and Ph.D. from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. After three years as an instructor at Boston University, he came to Brooklyn College as an instructor in the English Department in 1964. Over the years, he directed the Freshman Writing Program and held the position of deputy chair in charge of freshman English placement and testing. He served on dozens of department committees and as faculty adviser to the student newspaper The Kingsman.
Sean Mohammadi, Professor Emerita Nancy Hager, and Professor Emeritus Tim Gura, Foundation managers.
Foundation manager and former chair of the Department of Communication Arts, Sciences and Disorders Tim Gura, who knew both professors well, had this to say about Jack Kitch: "Jack was, first, a remarkably gifted teacher. In addition, he was a novelist and a sensitive and compassionate reader of fledgling authors—which made him magical in the classroom." Regarding Laura's support of him in his position of department chair, he said, "We became great chums only after I assumed the chairmanship of my department—in part because she was such a reliable guide on how to do the job! She combined what few have learned to balance gracefully: total awareness of the 'impossibility' of our joint endeavors and complete commitment to making it work."
Student recipients of Kitch scholarships.
In spring 2020, in response to the unprecedented impact of distance learning and virtual classes on our student body, the Kitch fund managers made a "Connectivity Grant" available to the school to assist students with small grants to fund their needs for upgraded technology and internet access. In spring and fall 2020, 106 students were awarded small Connectivity Grants, and then another 117 in spring 2021. These grants helped students to buy new laptops, pay outstanding cable bills, and upgrade their service. Dean Ken Gould and Dean's Faculty Associate Lynda Day read the applications and were moved by applicants' narratives of cramped apartments with numerous family members using the same laptop, out-of-work parents unable to pay bills, and being dropped in the middle of tests when their weak signals died.
This fall, the foundation continues its work supporting HSS students and programs by awarding a $50,000 grant to the Dean's Strategic Fund. Students in the home departments of the Kitches will surely benefit from both this gift and funds designated specifically for each department, including students pursuing creative writing degrees in the English Department's creative B.F.A. and M.F.A. programs.
For more than 30 years, Laura and Jack educated, enlightened, and influenced the young minds of our society. Today, their life's work continues through the generous support of the Kitch Foundation.
