All the world's great universities have one thing in common--a great faculty. A great faculty attracts outstanding students; in turn, superb students challenge and inspire the best faculty. Great faculty members are leaders in their fields, creating great works of art, conducting breakthrough research, writing great books, teaching inspired classes. When we find faculty members like this, we must do everything we can to attract them, encourage them, and retain them.

That is why endowed professorships are important. They help us bring the very best scholars and teachers to Washington University, and they help us to keep them here--to teach, to write, to research, to create, and to contribute to the community beyond the University.

History: Washington University's first endowed professorship, often called an endowed chair, dates from the early years of the University. Wayman Crow, one of the University's cofounders, decided to honor his visionary colleague and fellow cofounder by establishing the William Greenleaf Eliot Professorship of Chemistry in 1856. This significant early gift underscored the critical role of endowment for an independent institution of higher learning.

Since then, many dedicated friends have endowed professorships in each of the University's schools. These professorships have acted as a catalyst for the University's evolution into the internationally recognized institution it has become today.

High Honor: A named, endowed professorship is the highest honor a university can bestow upon a member of its faculty. The recognition and prestige it represents helps the University attract the very best new teachers and scholars, and helps retain outstanding current faculty.

Endowed professorships are reserved for the most distinguished faculty, recognizing extraordinary teaching and scholarship. The income from these permanently invested funds provides for salary, benefits, and research support, and provides a long-term commitment that often enables these outstanding educators, artists, and researchers to pursue projects at the frontiers of our knowledge and understanding.

Investment in the Future: A named professorship goes on for as long as Washington University endures. It becomes part of a tradition unto itself, developing its character and reputation, not just from the donors, but from the faculty holders of the chair. By any measure, the establishment of an endowed professorship represents the commitment of its donor to support and sustain the vigor and advancement of Washington University.

The establishment of additional endowed professorships is a major objective of the Campaign for Washington University. Such generous, enduring commitments will help the University realize its goal of accelerating its ascent among the world's premier universities.