“When you have faculty who are actively thinking about how to bring teaching, research, and outreach together, and you have private funding to get some of their dreams off the ground, the results can be exciting for students.” —Carla M. Zembal-Saul, associate professor of education and professor in charge of science education
Building Faculty Strength and Capacity
Students choose Penn State for the opportunity to work with faculty members who can stimulate their own potential to succeed. These leaders are among the world’s top researchers and scholars, but they are also educators who devote themselves to building an academic community in which every student can flourish. Our reputation as an institution depends upon our faculty’s achievements and their commitment to both creating and sharing the knowledge that shapes our world. Endowed faculty positions and graduate student support allow Penn State to recruit and retain the very best teachers and scholars, integrate discovery and education, and ensure an extraordinary educational experience at all of our campuses.
Faculty Support
Endowed faculty positions are among Penn State's most important resources for developing and sustaining a strong faculty. Such positions provide honor and recognition for the men and women who hold them, but they also provide something more important: a stable, dependable source of income for special teaching and research materials, library acquisitions, salary supplements, and travel assistance.
Dean's Chair/Chancellor's Chair: $5,000,000
The endowment of a dean’s or chancellor’s chair represents a landmark commitment, ensuring that the most visible and important positions in colleges/campuses are held by distinguished and talented leading scholar-educators.
Department Head’s Chair: $3,000,000
This gift provides flexible support for departmental leadership in the form of strategic investments that benefit not only the individual professor, but also the teaching, research, and service of the entire department.
Faculty Chair: $2,000,000
Typically conferred upon the most distinguished scholar-teachers, the endowment of a chair provides a professor with resources to continue promising research and programs, helping departments to attract or retain top faculty who are esteemed as mentors, direct important initiatives, and contribute significantly to the University’s mission.
Professorship: $1,000,000
An endowed professorship offers resources necessary to pursue new lines of research or innovative teaching methods, ensuring the stability and strength of our academic programs and allowing Penn State to encourage new levels of achievement among its most promising faculty.
Early Career Professorship: $500,000
This endowment offers early recognition and additional support for outstanding young University faculty. It is designed to rotate every three years to a new recipient, and it offers deans and campus executives the opportunity to recruit and retain rising academic stars.
Through the Faculty Endowment Challenge, donors can leverage a 1:2 match from the University to establish new early career professorships in any of Penn State's academic units with a commitment of $334,000.
For more information on giving to Penn State Mont Alto, please contact the Office of Development at 717-749-6105 or by email at [email protected].
It's Very Simple: Faculty chair endowments improve student experience