Summer
2003
Chairs of Distinction
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By
Roberta G. Wax
Photography by Jan Sonnenmair
EVER
SINCE THE FIRST ENDOWED PROFESSORSHIP was established 500
years ago at Oxford, privately funded “chairs” have
been essential tools for helping universities to reach the peak
of accomplishment and prestige.
As
a perpetual source of funding to support the work of selected faculty
members, chairs are a critical infusion to the life’s blood
of the institution. Both a reward to an established professor for
excellence in research and teaching and an inducement to younger
rising stars to join the school’s ranks, they are an essential
incentive that enables UCLA to compete on a more equal footing with
other top-tier institutions. Especially those with abundant private
support.
UCLA
currently boasts 189 endowed chairs in a wide range of academic
disciplines, from medicine and economics to philosophy and music.
And more may be on the horizon. A task force created by Chancellor
Albert Carnesale to examine how UCLA can maintain its competitiveness
in an era of shrinking budgets has recommended that the university
launch a “bold new initiative to support its academic core
as its highest post-Campaign development priority” by, among
other measures, raising funds to create additional new endowed chairs.
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