{"id":192,"date":"2011-12-21T13:49:39","date_gmt":"2011-12-21T13:49:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vandfam.net\/dev\/wordpressmu\/college\/?p=192"},"modified":"2011-12-21T13:49:39","modified_gmt":"2011-12-21T13:49:39","slug":"1-million-gift-supports-leadership-grants-for-faculty-chairs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=192","title":{"rendered":"$1 million gift supports leadership grants for faculty chairs"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Music department chair Terry Rhodes is one of the recipients of the new leadership grants (photo by Donn Young).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jan Bardsley knew just what to do with surprise funding from the dean\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

A stipend for a graduate student to oversee logistics for a major Asian studies conference on campus? Yes.<\/p>\n

Funds for faculty who elevate the department\u2019s profile by editing prestigious academic journals?\u00a0 Yes.<\/p>\n

Research awards for talented junior faculty writing their first books. Yes!<\/p>\n

Thanks to a $1 million gift to the College of Arts and Sciences from an anonymous alumni couple, the dean, too, can say \u201cyes\u201d with support for department chairs \u2014 faculty leaders who often sacrifice their own careers to serve the University.<\/p>\n

Dean Karen M. Gil made the first awards \u2014 academic leadership grants \u2014 this fall to 12 department chairs, including Bardsley of Asian studies. Awards ranged from $13,000 to $20,000. \u00a0Gil will have $200,000 available each year for the next five years to provide chairs with funds they may use to support research, teaching and \u201csay yes\u201d initiatives for faculty in their departments.\u00a0 Chairs may also use the grants to support their own academic, professional or administrative activities, or as summer compensation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am really grateful to the dean and the donors for this funding,\u201d said Bardsley, who reserved a small amount for her own postponed research as a Japanese culture scholar.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ability to help junior faculty get ahead on their research was very helpful. Budgets are tight, but research has to continue and even $1,000 or $2,000 is extremely valuable, particularly because travel costs for our research in Asian studies is expensive.\u00a0 These awards provide great encouragement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gil, a former department chair, said it\u2019s her priority to support the College\u2019s academic leadership.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing a chair is a large, time-consuming and demanding job that\u2019s performed mostly without recognition and adequate compensation,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s like running a small business and having little to put into building the business.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best way for me to recruit the most able faculty to serve as chairs is to provide greater and more effective incentives,\u201d Gil added. \u201cThis wonderful gift not only provides funds for me to direct to our College leadership, but it also sends a message that we support our chairs. This gift will empower them to do their work and give them resources to make things happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

And chairs must make plenty of things happen.<\/p>\n

They oversee searches that bring talented faculty to campus. They mentor junior faculty, and when faculty are courted by peer institutions, chairs work with the dean to make a counter-offer for a valued faculty member. The dean also asks chairs for recommendations on tenure decisions. Chairs set priorities that influence the quality of department curricula, oversee multi-million dollar budgets, and wield authority on course development, teaching assignments, merit raises and leaves. Without committed, creative, problem-solving chairs, faculty production and morale declines, and they leave for other institutions, compromising a quality educational experience for students.<\/p>\n

Chairs also place their careers on hold to run the department.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe resources made available by this gift will prove to potential faculty chairs that their scholarship will not suffer if they accept the position, but could, in fact, be strengthened,\u201d said Lloyd Kramer, history chair for five years, and another recipient of the initial grants. \u201cIt enhances the attractiveness of being chair, and its benefits have a ripple effect throughout the department.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt Redinbo, chemistry chair, said the generous grant \u2014 even more welcome with the campus\u2019 economic pressures \u2014 has enabled him to send faculty to chemistry teaching conferences to deal with curriculum changes to pre-med requirements.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve also been able to focus on mechanisms to recruit under-represented minorities, both students and faculty, to the department.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Carolina to compete with the best schools in the country and for the best people, it must have funds to attract top faculty, said one of the donors.<\/p>\n

\u201cDepartment chairs make decisions with long-term repercussions about the direction of their departments and have great influence over the University\u2019s future,\u201d she said.\u00a0 \u201cIt is extremely important that we have the best faculty possible in these positions and that we equip them well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Editor’s note: This story by Del Helton appeared in the spring ’11 issue of<\/em> Carolina Arts & Sciences<\/a> magazine.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jan Bardsley knew just what to do with surprise funding from the dean\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

A stipend for a graduate student to oversee logistics for a major Asian studies conference on campus? Yes.<\/p>\n

Funds for faculty who elevate the department\u2019s profile by editing prestigious academic journals? Yes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,21,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-foundation","category-news","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}