Graduate Coordinator Kathy Ross died Jan. 3, after a battle with ovarian cancer. Ross joined the Department of Linguistics as a senior office assistant in 1990. In 1991, she was promoted to graduate coordinator, a position she held until her death. For 18 years, she guided hundreds of students through the graduate program.
Emerita Professor Elizabeth Warnock Fernea (Comparative Literature and Middle Eastern Studies) died Dec. 2 at the age of 81. Fernea, a noted writer, filmmaker and scholar of women’s issues in the Middle East, taught at the university for 24 years. She served as chair of the university’s Women’s Studies Program from 1980 to 1983.