Campus News

The Office of Advancement and Alumni is thrilled to announce that the Slavens Ware Scholarship Endowment has reached its funding goal and is now officially an endowed scholarship here at RU! The first awards will be given out in the 2026-2027 academic year. Below, learn more about the Slavens Ware Scholarship Endowment, and the impact both Professor Slavens and Professor Ware had and continue to have on their students. 

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I didn’t think they did anything like that until after you died,” said Dr. Marjorie Slavens, former professor at Rockford University, when asked how she feels about having an endowed scholarship made in her name. Her former students, now friends, who sat next to her, laughed at this response.

Dr. Slavens, and former Professor Sally Lo Ware, are both being honored with an endowed scholarship put together by many of their former students. Alumni Dave & Paula Hougan ‘72, along with alumna Mary Parisoe ‘75, came together at the Rockford University Reunion in September 2024 with Dr. Slavens to talk about why and how they decided to put together this scholarship to honor their two professors.

“This is an absolute way for us to pay tribute to these two professors that were so meaningful in terms of our careers, and to all our experiences at Rockford College,” Dave Hougan said. “It’s unfortunate we didn’t do this earlier when Ms. Ware was around. (Ware passed in 1990). But we now can do this, and we probably weren’t in the place to do it at that time.”

Dave and Paula Hougan, who first met at Rockford College and later married, both studied language in school. Paula was a French and Spanish major, while Dave studied Spanish. Parisoe was a French major.

Ware taught at Rockford College from 1960 until her passing in 1990. She was the first faculty member hired by then-President Dr. John Howard. During Ware’s tenure, she was the chair of the French department and the director of the Language Lab.

When Ware passed suddenly in 1990, it was Parisoe who took her place after Dr. Slavens called her and asked.

Dr. Slavens worked at Rockford College from 1965 to 1998. During her 33 years, she was chair of the Spanish department, chair of the Languages department, and chair of the Language and Literature division.

Parisoe said it was Slavens’ and Ware’s teaching that gave her the career she did not have.

“People say, ‘Oh, the computers do that,’” Parisoe said. “But they don’t know. You would need a meeting of the minds, not a meeting of machines. I think it’s important (the study of language) and it also teaches you about your language in learning a second language.”

Alumna Paula Hougan agrees.

“I’m from a small town in Illinois, and when I checked recently on the demographics of my school district, it continues to be a hundred percent white,” Paula Hougan said.

Through her experience at Rockford College, and her time with Professor Slavens and Ware, Hougan had the opportunity to travel to different countries, and not just as a tourist. Through this endowment fund, she hopes to highlight the importance of people connecting through language.

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This story was originally published in the 2023-2024 Annual Report under Sara Myers-Hogshead’s byline.