USD Magazine, 1993 Winter-Spring 1994

person. So, it's a combination of educa– tion on-campus and public service off– campus." The chair has had an impact on the students, faculty and the education com– munity. "First of all, it brings expertise from other parts of the country," DeRoche says. "The students benefit from interaction with the chairholder. It also brings a major resource to the entire faculty. Any faculty member who wants to attend seminars with the chairholder or meet with this person individually - not just the special education faculty - it's all arranged. And the third benefit, it is a resource to the community because we want this person to represent us and talk to the educators in the community." Price Chair of Public Interest Law, funded by Sol and Helen Price. Chair– holder Robert C. Fellmeth is director of the Center for Public Interest Law and Children's Advocacy Institute in USD's School of Law. The center has an unequalled track record of drafting legis– lation, litigating test cases in agencies and before appellate courts, and engaging in public advocacy on behalf of unorga– nized and underrepresented publics. During the 1991-92 session of the Cali– fornia state legislature, for example, 12 laws originating with CAI models were enacted, ranging from required parenting classes to child support collection to child care regulation reform. "Everybody is organized horizontally into peer groups promoting their own interests," Fellmeth explains, citing sev– eral of the existing lobbyist groups and trade associations. "The Center for Pub– lic Interest Law was created in the hopes of influencing the rules of the game so that government serves the public inter– est. The Children's Advocacy Institute began in 1989 as a major focus for the center. Children, although a large part of the population and clearly in need, are without organization - children don't vote, they don't contribute to cam– paigns. Hence, they may well comprise the one group most underrepresented and most in need of public interest advocacy." From the center's inception in 1980 until the endowed chair was established 10 years later, the center was funded entirely by "soft money," meaning that USO contributed only to the overhead - the building space - and the rest was ne of the best examples of the impact an endowed chair can have on the community is the

With a tradition so rich and a pro– gram that seemingly benefits all, why wasn't a program of endowed chairs started 40 years ago at USO? First, con– sider that USO is still a relatively young institute of higher learning - the University of Notre Dame was 125 years old before it announced its first fully funded endowed professorship. However, the primary reason for the delay was to establish a development program sophisticated enough to recruit the millions of dollars it takes to fund an endowed chair. "It wasn't started 40 years ago sim– ply because the development program here wasn't mature enough to go after the kind of funding it takes," says Hughes. "It's a different approach. In some cases it's deferred giving, meaning we have people leave funds in their estate. We really weren't geared up to that in past years. But we are now and that's why a number of endowed chairs have evolved. "Any kind of endowment is a new concept to USO,'' Hughes adds. "We've only begun in the last 15 years in earnest to try to develop funding, and the last capital campaign was really our first effort to endow chairs." The Education for a New Age capital campaign, the university's largest com– prehensive campaign ever, officially closed Dec. 31, 1992, after exceeding its goal by $5.5 million. The $53 million result of this campaign has allowed the university to provide support programs for faculty and students, including securing the funding critical for endowed chairs. he DeForest Strunk Chair, now in its fourth year, is held on a rotating basis by a nationally recognized specialist in special education. The chair, the gift of an anonymous donor, was named after the dynamic first director of the special edu– cation program at USO. It was estab– lished as a way to bring top educators to campus either for a full year or a semes– ter at a time, says Edward DeRoche, dean of the School of Education. "The chairs teach a half load, they work with the faculty on research and scholarship, and they do community projects," DeRoche explains. "For example, we've always put on two or three public lectures. We always invite the special education supervisors in the education community in San Diego County to come in and meet with this

ut endowed chairs are not merely a success story of financial support for a schol–

ar; the concept is a foundation to build a program based on academic excellence. The positions are a means of attract– ing and retaining the best professors and, in some cases, they are a reward for confirmed excellence. The holder of an endowed chair will have exhibited high levels of achievement in his or her field and will be able to make significant con– tributions to the academic discipline. Faculty members of special caliber and recognition draw to the campus col– leagues of similar abilities and students with high promise. "Faculty development precedes curriculum development," explains Pat Drinan, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. "Because of our commitment to teaching, investing in the faculty pays off for the students." Supporting an endowed chair is a way of providing direct budgetary support for the university, says USO President Author E. Hughes. While the core of an endowed fund remains in the bank, a portion of the interest is spent to fund the cost of a chair position. "The chairholder performs the functions of a university professor and is paid out of endowed funds, meaning we don't have to raise that amount of money every year to pay that person," Hughes explains. "The money is there; it's in the bank, so to speak. So from a finan– cial point of view, an endowed chair secures a position for the long run, in most cases in perpetuity." From an academic point of view, endowed chairs provide a university with a distinguished scholar, either on a permanent basis or on a rotating basis, to bring a flow of outside talent into the program. "For example, our chair in spe– cial education is formulated in such a way that it isn't with a permanent per– son," Hughes says. "On the other hand, in law we have a chair that is devoted to just one person. That person is probably one of the best people in the country in his area."

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