SAN DIEGO, CA, (NAMC) - An outstanding faculty is the hallmark of any great university.  To stay competitive in attracting and retaining distinguished scholars, Nobel Laureates, Pulitzer Prize recipients, academic leaders and innovators of all kinds, Chancellor Marye Anne Fox recently challenged alumni and friends of the University of California, San Diego to increase the number of academic chairs campus-wide. 

The challenge was met with enthusiasm, and dollars:  More than $5 million in gifts through the Chancellor’s Chair Challenge, a partial-match program implemented by Fox, established 15 critically needed endowed faculty chairs at UC San Diego.  While state funds provide basic faculty salaries, permanent endowed funds created by philanthropic gifts support chair holders’ educational and research costs associated with academic projects. 

UCSD is facing faculty recruitment challenges not seen since the university was founded over 45 years ago.  From 1998 through 2016, campus undergraduate and graduate enrollments are expected to increase 91 percent.  Due to this ongoing enrollment growth, it is anticipated that 200 new faculty positions will need to be filled, while 350 faculty who will retire or leave the general campus must be replaced.

“Chairs are critical in attracting and retaining stellar scholars whose accomplishments support the growth and continued enhancement of UC San Diego,” says Fox.  “We are very pleased with the impressive response from our generous donors who have shared in the establishment of these endowed faculty chairs.”  

The Chancellor’s Chair Challenge brings the total number of UCSD endowed faculty chairs to 132; two additional chairs are expected to be established as part of the initiative, pending UC Presidential approval, in the coming months.

Passionate supporters of the Chancellor’s Chair Challenge include Cymer, Inc. cofounders Bob Akins and Rick Sandstrom—who both earned their bachelor’s and doctoral degrees at UCSD.  Cymer has achieved tremendous success, and its founders and board have never forgotten their UCSD roots.  They recently established their second endowed chair at UCSD, the Cymer Endowed Chair in Advanced Optical Technology, to promote groundbreaking advancements within the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the Jacobs School of Engineering. 

“Engineering is essential to the development of technology that significantly impacts our quality of life, and we feel UCSD has played an instrumental role in cultivating the minds that will mold our future world,” says Akins.  “We are proud to help support UCSD as one of the nation’s top educational institutions.”

Because the need for faculty support at UCSD is so great, during the six-month challenge, Fox committed Chancellor’s discretionary-use gift funds to offset the minimum amount of private support needed from donors seeking to establish an endowed faculty position, which can range from $500,000 to $2 million, depending on the department.  

The 15 UCSD endowed chairs established as part of Chancellor Fox’s initiative include:

Daniel Yankelovich Chair on Social Thought
Donor: Daniel Yankelovich
Epstein/Atkinson Endowed Chair in Management Leadership
Donors: Daniel and Phyllis Epstein, Richard and Rita Atkinson
 
Arthur Brody Endowed Chair in Management Leadership
Donor: Arthur Brody
 
Harriet and Louis Bookheim Endowed Chair in Biblical Hebrew and Related Languages
Donors: Harriet and Louis Bookheim
 
Tamara and Kevin Kinsella Chair in Neurobiology
Donors: Tamara and Kevin Kinsella
 
George E. Palade Chair
Donors: Various friends and colleagues of Dr. Palad
 
Endowed Chair in Modern Chinese History
Donors: Anonymous

McQuown Chair in Natural Science at SIO
Donors: John and Leslie McQuown

Elizabeth Hamman and Morgan Dene Oliver Chair in Marine Biodiversity
and Conservation Science
Donors: Elizabeth Hamman Oliver and Morgan Dene Oliver

Jerri-Ann and Gary E. Jacobs Endowed Chair in Social Sciences
Donors: Jerri-Ann and Gary E. Jacobs, ‘79

Amylin Chair in Lifesciences Education and Research
Donor: Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. 

Endowed Chair in Behavioral Genomics
Donor: Anonymous

Rebeca Hickel Chair in Elizabethan Literature
Donor: Walter H. and Rebeca Hickel

Stanford S. and Beverly P. Penner Endowed Chair in Engineering or
Applied Science
Donor: Stanford S. Penner, Ph.D.

Cymer, Inc. Endowed Chair in Advanced Optical Technologies
Donors: Robert P. Akins, ’74, M.S. ’77, Ph.D. ’83; Richard L. Sandstrom, ’72, M.S. ’77, Ph.D. ’79; Cymer Corporation

Complete details on these and other endowed faculty chairs established during The Campaign for UCSD can be accessed at www.campaign.ucsd.edu/campaignchairs.  To learn how to establish an endowed chair at UC San Diego, please call (858) 534-1610 or email .