The University of Chicago has announced a $5.5 million bequest from the estate of former Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham. A large portion of the gift, some $4 million, will support a fellowship program designed to advance the quality of liberal arts teaching at the university.

The gift from Graham, a Chicago alumna ('38) and former member of its board of trustees, is the largest contribution ever to the university's Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts, a program that recruits promising young scholars to teach liberal arts courses in the university's renowned undergraduate college. The Katharine Graham Fellowships will support four four-year teaching positions in the society, and fellows, whose selection will be based on their interest in and aptitude for undergraduate teaching, will be freed from committee and departmental responsibilities so they can concentrate on teaching.

"Katharine Graham was one of the university's most distinguished and generous alumnae," said university president Don Michael Randel. "During the more than thirty years that she served as a university trustee, her courage and her commitment to the highest ideals embodied precisely that for which the university stands."