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University attempts to attract faculty with endowments

Kelly Fryberger

Miami University's endowed professorship program is one step closer to its goal of creating 100 new professorships within the next four years.

According to Brad Bundy, associate vice president of university advancement, Miami now has 51 endowed professorships, 11 of those created since last year.

The program is an extension of Miami's For Love and Honor campaign. The goal is to accumulate $15 million in donations to create endowed professorships-positions of honor for professors, who receive money for expenses related to their academic ventures.

According to Bundy, Miami will lose approximately 50 percent of its faculty to retirement within the next five to seven years.

Vacant positions need to be filled by new professors, Bundy said. He said he hopes professorships will help the university during this period.

To create a professorship for an associate or assistant professor, Bundy said the university needs a $400,000 donation. Tenured full-time professors can receive chair professorships, which are created by a donation of $1 million.

However, finding new professors is becoming a national problem, according to Jim Ambuske, director of special projects for university advancement.

"What we're seeing nationwide is the beginning stages of mass retirement," Ambuske said. "Using the prestige ... of endowment to recruit new professors and keep midlevel and senior professors from jumping to other institutions."

Bundy agreed that this is a national problem.

"Professorships will create the environment we need to be competitive nationally when attracting new professors," Bundy said.

What the endowments are used for depends on the individual circumstance, Bundy said.

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The school will first work with the donor to specify where the money will go, although Bundy said most of the money will go to travel for research, salary supplements and summer releases. In most cases, the plans for the money must first go through the dean of the school in which it is being used.

According to Bundy, some endowments are given to a professor for a brief time, such as three to five years. After those years are up, the endowment will be awarded to another professor to use. These endowments are particularly beneficial in attracting and rewarding new professors, Bundy said.

Ambuske said most of the professorships are currently in the Farmer School of Business, which is also the school with the most longstanding endowed professorships.

To up the amount raised for endowments, Miami has created a match program so that, for the time being, a donor can create an endowed professorship for $300,000 and a chair for $900,000.

Miami will add $100,000 to donations of these amounts to meet the minimum.