U-M vies successfully for best faculty, Coleman says

Updated 10:00 AM October 1, 2007

U-M vies successfully for best faculty, Coleman says

By Kevin Brown

The University will continue to compete for the best faculty in the country, thanks partly to diligent efforts to endow professorships and to seek gifts as public support of higher education shrinks nationwide, President Mary Sue Coleman told faculty Senate Assembly members Sept. 24.

Donors have created 168 new chairs since the start of The Michigan Difference campaign, Coleman said, increasing endowed positions by 62 percent with 15 months remaining in the campaign.

The president said the growth comes at a time of fierce competition for faculty.

"It is an arms race. It is a competition for talent that makes athletic recruiting look like a playground tussle," she told representatives assembled at the Palmer Commons forum hall.

"It is also why it is critical that we support our faculty — with our actions, with our facilities and with our resources," she said.

While The Michigan Difference $2.5 billion campaign goal was reached last spring, Coleman said the campaign will continue until its scheduled conclusion in December 2008, to address unmet needs, particularly in the areas of faculty and student support.

The president said a fundraising challenge she initiated last year has been far more successful than anticipated. Coleman announced then that if a donor would give the University $1.5 million to endow a professorship, she would match it with $500,000 from the president's discretionary funds.

"That combined $2 million is today's cost of endowing a chair, and I was prepared to match gifts for up to 20 chairs," she said. "We have high expectations when it comes to philanthropy at Michigan, and we were hopeful that this challenge would accelerate support of our faculty.

"Accelerate turned out to be an understatement. In less than eight months, donors stepped forward to endow all 20 chairs. Frankly, I was stunned. Never before in the history of Michigan have we seen so many professorships endowed so quickly."

The president said new chairs have been established in actuarial sciences, European studies, diabetes research, finance, American history and more. Coleman noted that endowed professorships involve not just salary support, but also funds for research, travel, lab space and other needs.

"Endowed chairs carry tremendous prestige, provide significant flexibility, and are a strong tool for recruitment and retention. You've seen this in your departments, and several of you have experienced it yourselves with the chairs you hold," she said.

Coleman said U-M must remain competitive with peers, especially private institutions. "Harvard, Stanford, Chicago and the like seek the same professors we work to recruit and retain. And they are just as aggressive about graduate students," she said.

"I want those most promising graduate students to study here, at Michigan, because these future professors, engineers, scientists, lawyers, creative artists and doctors have so much to gain with a U-M education. And you know as well as I that having great graduate students is fundamental to the quality of our research and educational environment and to the quality of faculty we can attract."

While there are 17,000 graduate and professional students on campus, there are fewer than 1,500 endowed funds to support them. "I want that to change," Coleman said.

Since a full graduate or professional fellowship can cost upwards of $50,000 annually, Coleman noted it requires an endowment of $750,000 or more to be truly effective.

"Working with Vice President Jerry May and his development team, I am launching a second phase of my donor challenge, specifically for endowing graduate fellowships," she said. The new President's Challenge matches donor contributions for graduate and professional student financial aid on a two-for-one basis, with every two dollars from a donor receiving a one-dollar match. The challenge will continue through the conclusion of the campaign.

Responding to a question about the state budget shortfall and its possible impact on the University's allocation, Coleman said, "I absolutely expect them to meet their commitments."

The president thanked faculty and staff for an outpouring of support for The Michigan Difference campaign. "Nearly 15,000 faculty and staff, active and retired, have contributed more than $115 million, a number that I find just remarkable."

U-M vies successfully for best faculty, Coleman says

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