As a matter of conducting work in an effective way, the Office of College Advancement operates from a list of strategic priorities for fund raising in the College. While there are instances where funds are raised for something other than one of these, the priorities provide the office and the College with a clear way of communicating about what is important from a private support standpoint. The current strategic priorities are as follows:
- Faculty Support. Never before has the need for privately supported faculty positions been so great. Colleges’ and universities’ academic reputations are their lifeblood, and academic reputation is a direct product of the talent of faculty in key areas. Faculty members who lead their fields of research and study
are in great demand, and privately endowed faculty positions provide a critical margin of excellence in recruiting these faculty members to the College.
- Graduate Student Support. Like key faculty members, motivated and talented graduate students also impact a college’s reputation. A quality graduate student, working with a top-tier faculty member, is important to a college’s research and teaching productivity in qualitative and quantitative terms. Privately endowed graduate student funds give the College a competitive edge in recruiting the best and the brightest of these students.
- Program Support. Endowments and gifts for general support of a program provide faculty and staff in that program with funds to engage in activities not provided for in normal budgets. By doing so, they directly enhance a program’s productivity.
- Unrestricted Support. Unrestricted support for the College of Education allows the Dean of the College to direct private funding where it can have the most impact. This type of support is used for purposes such as need-based scholarships, faculty and student travel experiences to represent the College abroad, and key equipment purchases, just to name a few.