The University of Cincinnati has announced a $4 million gift from the estate of Magda Margolis to endow a fund that will support programming at its McMicken College of Arts and Sciences.  

The Magda and Milton Margolis Fund for Arts and Sciences will support a new McMicken Honors Scholars Program in addition to benefiting scholarships, faculty, research, and diversity initiatives. The new McMicken Scholars program will grant renewable four-year full-tuition awards to the best students from across the nation, as well as dedicated funding in support of study abroad experiences, internships, and independent research. The gift also will provide seed funding and supplemental support to faculty whose research is innovative, interdisciplinary, and has the potential to attract additional funding and will support the programmatic investments and travel needed to recruit and retain students and faculty from underrepresented groups.

The gift comes from the estate of Magda (Lippner) Margolis, who escaped from communist Czechoslovakia in 1954 and eventually ended up in New York. There she met her future husband, the late Milton Margolis, vice chairman of Host Apparel and a 1939 graduate of McMicken College. The two were married in 1964.

"This incredibly generous gift from the late Magda Margolis will create both immediate and long-term impact for our students, faculty and programs," said McMicken College dean Ken Petren. "The Margolis fund will provide the college with a permanent source of flexible support, giving academic leaders like me the ability to respond to opportunities and challenges now and in the future. I am extremely grateful to have received such a gift at the beginning of my tenure when it can be leveraged to jump-start several very important initiatives."