UCSD Library Receives $1.1M Bequest from Alumna

Writer and UC San Diego alumna Alice Goldfarb Marquis left $1.1 million to support UC San Diego Libraries. Marquis, who authored eight books on popular culture and art, earned a doctorate degree in Modern European History from UC San Diego in 1978.

The university announced the gift from the Alice G. Marquis Living Trust on Tuesday. The donation is the largest bequest the library has received. It will be used to establish a new study area in Geisel Library to be open 24 hours a day, five days a week, and support the existing H. Stuart Hughes UCSD Libraries Endowment for Modern European History.

“This generous gift comes at a critical moment when the library budget has been slashed dramatically,” said Pamela Radcliff, chair of the UC San Diego Historic Department in a press release. “In fields like history access to physical books and manuscripts remain crucial to our scholarship and teaching. Library collections are essential to maintaining our status as an elite university.”

Brian E. C. Schottlaender, The Audrey Geisel University Librarian, said having a library space that is open 24 hours a day has long been at the top of students’ wish lists. Currently the library is only open for 24 hours during finals and the week before finals. The new hours will start in fall 2012.

Marquis reportedly used the campus libraries extensively during her doctoral studies. She passed away in 2009 at the age of 79. Her initial endowment was made in honor of UC San Diego historian Stuart Hughes, who was Marquis’s advisor.