University Of Illinois To Create Center Honoring Roger Ebert

CHICAGO (AP) -- Efforts are underway to create a center named for late film critic Roger Ebert in the College of Media at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Ebert's wife, Chaz Ebert, and the school made the announcement on Thursday. The Ebert Center's goal would be to combine the studies of film and ethics to encourage writers and filmmakers to think critically about film.

Ebert was a Pulitzer Prize-winning movie critic for the Chicago Sun-Times who graduated from the University of Illinois. He died in 2013 after a long battle with cancer.

It takes $5 million to establish a center at the university. So far about $2.5 million has been raised, including an endowment from the Eberts. That leaves about $2.5 million more needed to create The Ebert Center.