Endowing professorships has been common practice in the United States for some time. It first occurred when Thomas Hollis, a London merchant, gave money to Harvard University to create the Hollis Professorship of Divinity, which still exists today.
Given current political climates, endowed professorships seem to be the best way to provide for the needs of professors. Finding donors (not just limited to endowed professorships) is something Chancellor Folt has done incredibly well, and she ought to be commended for it.
When done well, these endowments ensure UNC stays accessible and affordable for North Carolina students. With threats of defunding higher education coupled with growing anti-intellectualism in the United States, these endowed professorships might be the logical path for public universities moving forward.
With an alumni base as loyal as the Tar Heels’, the future looks bright for UNC. Further, donating to universities is proving to be an effective marketing campaign for companies.
We sincerely thank any alumni or companies stepping up to defend public education. We may be ascribing some undue self-importance to ourselves, but investing in college students can lead to great things in the long term. Still — is the endowment trend always a positive thing?
As with any issue, there are drawbacks that lead us to question if endowed professorships are a model that can sustain academia as we know it.
Academic freedom defines the modern university, and it is something that should never be sold or negotiated. If endowments become destructive to an institution’s academic freedom, there is a moral obligation to reject the donation.
Immoral endowments would entail donors trying to directly impact the curriculum or research of the benefiting professor. Research needs to be conducted as objectively as possible without being subject to the desires of a donor. Certainly, the donors should be able to control where their own money goes, but the university has an obligation to protect its faculty or staff.
If one truly believes in the mission of higher education, this shouldn’t be a big deal. Every bit of knowledge we know comes from the disruption of a previously held belief. As members of an intellectual community, we should be at the very least open to the production of new ideas. After that, we can engage with the arguments and possibly reach even better conclusions.
