The Icelandic Canadian - 01.06.2000, Qupperneq 15

Vol. 55 #4
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
313
History, Anthropology, Linguistics, Sociology, Religion, Geography, Geology, Political Studies
and Women's Studies, and from the Faculties of Education, Medicine, Nursing, Law, Human
Ecology, Art and Architecture. It is also a major and much used source of genealogical material for
the community.
The development of both Department and Collection have certainly fulfilled the original expec-
tations that the "Icelandic Presence" (to use the new descriptor) be "on a basis comparable in every
way with that of other departments in the Humanities" and have now, arguably, far exceeded those
expectations in both scope and depth.
But, again, the building was not complete, and the assurance of continued success still uncer-
tain.
Growing Pains
While the income from the Trust was originally sufficient to support not only the salary of the
Professor but also the other costs of the Department and provide additional support for acquisitions
of the Icelandic Collection, this soon ended. Costs due to the ravages of inflation including increas-
ing salaries soon exceeded the income returns from the Trust. Notwithstanding clause 3(e), the
University chose to provide the additional costs of continuing the appointment of the Chair and
Head and of other modest
Department functions as well as
contributing to the acquisitions
of the collection as part of the
libraries' budget. By the early
1980s, a large majority of all
these costs were borne by the
University's own resources and a
much smaller fraction by the
Trust.10
In the early 1980s it became
clear that the object of the origi-
nal campaign, namely to provide
for a continuing Icelandic
Presence at The University of
Manitoba, was not being assured
by the Trust which the campaign had established. In 1985, Dr. P. H. T. Thorlakson asked Adelsteinn
Kristjansson and Neil Bardal to co-chair a new campaign which became known as the Heritage,
Image, Pride ("H. I. P.") Campaign.
Sigrid Johnson
Hrund Skulason
This campaign raised a total of some $345,000 which, through a combination of on-going dona-
tions and more sophisticated management of investments, is now capitalized at some $465,000. The
proceeds from the campaign produce annual disbursable income of some $35,000 in an account
known as The Icelandic Language and Literature Fund, the use of which is governed by the fol-
lowing verbatim quote of its Terms of Reference (stripped only of some of their legal formalities):
ICELANDIC LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE FUND
Terms of Reference
1. The University of Manitoba shall establish the Icelandic Language and Literature
Fund for the purpose of enhancing the teaching, research and scholarly activities of the
Department of Icelandic Language and Literature [sic]12
2. The capital of the Fund shall be invested, and the investment income allocated, in
accordance with the policies established from time to time by the University.
3. The portion of investment income that is available for disbursement under the afore-