The University of Arizona Alumnus / Spring 2008
PUTTING PEOPLE FIRST: Making Endowed Chairs a Priority
Have a Seat
by Dana Wier
Photos by Jacob Chinn
In any business, exceptional employees set the performance bar. In academia, these employees are often the creative and productive
faculty who are invested at the highest level of their disciplines. Their names are known and revered by their colleagues nationally and globally.
Competition among universities to retain these extraordinary faculty is brisk. They are vigorously recruited, courted with compelling programs that include research and programmatic support, often made possible through the creation of an endowed chair.
Awarded to faculty members at the height of their careers, an endowed chair is a reward for past performance and a commanding statement of expectations about future accomplishments. It is a compelling recruiting tool for the most industrious faculty, and an effective means to retain the talent already on campus.
With an endowment, the entire gift is permanently invested. Each year, a portion of the income earned by the fund is distributed to the endowed chairholder, while another portion remains with the endowment, ensuring future growth and keeping pace with inflation. The chairholder uses the income to support his or her research, teaching, and service responsibilities. Funding also may be used to augment the faculty member’s salary, thus freeing monies that would have otherwise been committed to a salary line.
The tradition began in 1502, when Margaret, Countess of Richmond and grandmother to the future King Henry VIII, established the Lady Margaret Professorship of Divinity at Oxford, England.
In America, the first endowed chair was established more than 200 years later, with the creation of the Hollis Professorship of Divinity, in 1721 at Harvard. Both chairs are still endowed today, still support the work of distinguished professors, and still pay tribute to the benefactors who created them.
The University of Arizona is home to nearly 70 endowed chairs. A key priority of UA President Robert Shelton, the campus and fundraising communities are directing energy and resources to establishing a greater number of endowed chairs. University supporters have responded generously, meeting the minimum amount of $1 million required to establish a chair.
An endowment gives forever. It is a powerful, ongoing legacy of recognition for the generous benefactor who looked to the future and made a permanent commitment to higher education.
— Dana Wier
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