Diane M. Ross, who authorities said used the screen name Snowy Violet, had asked a person using the moniker JFG113 to send her the material when she was logged onto her computer in April, according to Assistant State's Atty. Daniel Shanes.

When Lake County Judge Raymond McKoski asked Ross if she wanted to plead guilty to one count of solicitation of child pornography, a Class 2 felony, the 46-year-old mother said, "Yes, sir, I do."

Steve Galovich, Lake Forest College's provost and dean of faculty, would not comment on any pending disciplinary action against Ross, an employee since 1980.

She was scheduled to teach a course on classical writers Jane Austen, Edith Wharton and Virginia Woolf this fall.

"Before we can comment on that plea, or its implications, we need to understand its full meaning. Currently, therefore, we can make no additional comments on her case," Galovich said in a prepared statement.

Ross, of the 100 block of East Witchwood Lane in Lake Bluff, is on sabbatical as an associate professor of English, Galovich said. She was head of the English department when she was arrested in May.

As part of the negotiated plea, Ross was ordered to do 100 hours of community service and pay $2,000 each to CrimeStoppers and the Children's Advocacy Center. Ross also was ordered not to have contact with those younger than 17, except her own children, and to turn in her computer and related equipment to the state's attorney's office.

More serious charges of dissemination of child pornography were dropped as part of the plea bargain.

A sex-offender evaluation presented Thursday revealed that Ross "did not even bear a mild resemblance" to those who commit such crimes. "This is a very isolated incident," said Steve McCullom, Ross' attorney.

Ross did not comment after her appearance in court.

Local law officials were alerted to Ross' participation in a child pornography ring when they were contacted by the district attorney's office in San Bernardino County, Calif.

Authorities there were in the midst of an investigation when they tracked "hundreds" of e-mail files with pornographic images of children to Ross' home, said Detective Rick White of the Lake County sheriff's office.

No money or sales were involved in the online picture-trading sites, or rooms, in which Ross participated, police said.

According to the college's Web site in the spring, Ross received bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees from Yale University.