ISU President Gregory Geoffroy’s proposal to double the number of endowed faculty positions could help Iowa State recruit and retain faculty members.

Geoffroy proposed during the Sept. 26 convocation that the ISU Foundation’s “next big fundraising campaign” meet the goal of doubling the number of endowed faculty at Iowa State, which is currently 90 positions.

“The faculty are absolutely behind the idea,” said Gary Phye, co-chairman of the Human Sciences Caucus in the Faculty Senate.

Phye, professor of curriculum and instruction, said the honor of being selected as an endowed chairperson or professor is a major draw for recruiting and keeping faculty.

“Across the country, people who have that title are considered to have attained one of the higher marks of achievement in academia,” he said.

Phye said he was looking forward to the impact of additional money on departments with endowed faculty.

“Obviously, it’s going to be an issue where if someone takes an endowed professorship with the university, it’s going to loosen some funds,” he said.

Geoffroy said Iowa State’s peer institutions are increasing endowments for faculty, giving the university another incentive to double its numbers.

“It is a very strong continuation of the ‘Investing in People policy,'” Geoffroy said. “Endowed chairs and professorships are one of the greatest tools that a university has to recruit outstanding faculty.”

According to the ISU Foundation Web site, $16.1 million has been raised for faculty support, including funds for three endowed faculty chairpeople, six endowed faculty professorships and one faculty fellowship.

Geoffroy said the motivation for endowing more faculty was not about indirectly increasing salaries.

“[Increasing faculty salaries] isn’t the major driver for endowed chairs and professorships. It sometimes happens, but not a major component,” Geoffroy said.

Warren Madden, vice president for business and finance, said the addition of more faculty would improve the university in more ways than the salaries of professors covered by endowment gifts.

“We can attract better faculty members, provide them with more resources, and that ought to improve the quality of the university,” Madden said. “That would improve the learning environment and research programs at Iowa State.”

Madden said departments could also benefit from budget savings for endowed faculty, but it would be on a case-by-case basis.

Jason Menke, assistant director of communications for the ISU Foundation, said faculty fellowships require a minimum gift of $150,000, professorships need $500,000 and chairpeople and dean’s chairpeople are $1.5 million and $3 million, respectively.

Menke said endowing faculty was a more difficult concept to communicate to donors, but Geoffroy has been promoting the idea since his installment address in 2001.

“Everybody seems to understand … scholarships, loans and grants, but faculty support has been a more difficult subject to discuss in the past several years,” Menke said.

Menke said the proposal is similar to Geoffroy’s previous “Investing in People” theme and would not require the ISU Foundation to drastically change its message.