Summer 2007

Faculty Support a Leading Priority

With Miami University facing a faculty retirement rate of nearly 40 percent over the next 10 years, increased support for the recruitment and retention of talented and dedicated faculty has emerged as a leading priority for The Miami University Campaign For Love and Honor.

A national leader among public universities, Miami is committed to offering a high quality education to its students by providing significant resources to the faculty scholars who mentor them. With a wave of approaching retirements poised to reshape faculties across the nation, Miami must honor its own retiring scholars by finding distinguished faculty to succeed them.

In an effort to meet this important challenge, Miami University has created an opportunity for its alumni and friends to support quality faculty by creating a named professorship endowment through a special matching funds challenge. Endowments for professorships ordinarily require a minimum commitment of $400,000, but under this new program, those who commit $300,000 will receive a $100,000 match from the university using unrestricted gift money, as long as matching funds are available.

Among the first rising to the occasion are Miami friends, and parents, Terry and Kathryn O'Toole. Originally, the O'Tooles established a faculty scholar endowment with a commitment of $250,000 in March 2006. When they heard about the matching funds challenge, however, the O'Tooles graciously agreed to increase their commitment by $50,000 to qualify for the match and create the O'Toole Family Professorship. When fully endowed, this new position will provide much needed salary and research support for a deserving scholar.

"We're very proud to be one of the first to accept the matching challenge. We hope other families and individuals have an equal desire to participate," said Terry. "I'd like to think that we're at the beginning of something that will push Miami to even greater levels of excellence."

Miami has set aside a limited number of unrestricted gifts to make this matching challenge possible. Currently, Miami has 34 endowed professorships. By the conclusion of the campaign in June 2010, the university seeks to have 100 endowed professorships. Miami is providing matching funds for the first 20 new endowed professorships.

"We saw this as a way to help Miami compete for talented faculty," Terry explained. "The academic job market is extremely competitive. It is important that the university has sufficient resources to attract the right people."

The endowments can be named for the donor, someone the donor designates (family member, teacher, colleague, friend, etc.) or for the purpose of the endowment. The donor has the right to designate their professorship to a specific school, department, or field of study. Matching funds are applied once the original commitment is fulfilled.

"Our gift, as well as other new faculty endowments, will give younger teachers and senior scholars the ability to share their passions with their students for generations to come," Terry said.

Caroline O'Toole, daughter of Terry and Kathryn, graduated from Miami in 2001. The O'Toole's son, Johnathon, is currently attending Miami.

Back to the Giving Tribute Summer 2007