SON: Connections - Fall 2003

\ SON: Connections - Fall 2003

Headlines | Briefly | From the Deans Desk

Alumni Pool Resources, Seek to Create
New Endowed Professorship
In an effort to establish a new endowed professorship honoring outstanding nursing faculty at the University of Washington, this year School of Nursing alumni banded together to create the Alumni Endowed Professorship Fund.

Alumni contributions to the new fund will create the school's fifth endowed faculty professorship. Such positions make a powerful statement that the recipients are highly valued, widely respected and acknowledged as leaders in their fields. An endowment also serves as an investment in a faculty member's future achievement.

The school needs $250,000 to establish an endowed professorship. To date, contributions to the fund total more than $141,000, over halfway to the goal.

"The majority of people can't fund a chair or professorship alone," says Marjorie Batey '53, professor emeritus. "But maybe someone could give $1,000. What would happen if we pooled such gifts? We have the strength in numbers to achieve the goal."

In addition to a gift from Batey, Betty McCurdy '49 and her husband James McCurdy also gave substantial funds for the new alumni professorship. A gift from Evona Brim '55 and the estate of her husband, the late Gene Brim, contributed toward the goal as well.

"As an alumna, I feel one of the ways to show how you value the school is to help strengthen the school," says Betty McCurdy. "One of the ways to do that is to strengthen the faculty so that they in turn can help the students."

Gifts to the Alumni Endowed Professorship Fund will enhance the salary of an outstanding faculty member who is being heavily recruited by other institutions; provide the professorship holder with funds to pursue innovative teaching and new research; allow the endowed professor to hire student teaching or research assistants; or attract a senior faculty member who can develop leading-edge, interdisciplinary research and programs.

The Alumni Endowed Professorship Fund is a permanent fund created to grow over time. The principal is invested and left intact; the income it produces will allow the school to retain or attract outstanding faculty.

"The school needs this fund to strengthen its programs for students, that's what it comes down to," Batey says. "And it's a basic principle that if you can't do something by yourself, see if you can get several people to join together to get it done."

Gifts to the new Alumni Endowed Professorship Fund may be made in the name of a favorite faculty member, to honor him or her. Gifts can be made outright or deferred through a planned gift of any type of asset such as cash, securities, real estate or other property. For more information, contact Laurie Ramacci Noegel in the Office of Development at 206-221-7674 or ramacci@u.washington.edu.

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