<p>Insofar as one measure of a university’s quality is the number of endowed professorships it has, I am curious as to the number that BC has. Can anyone shed some light on this?</p>
<p>I would argue that the number of endowed professorships is not a measure of a university’s quality, but a measure of its wealth.</p>
<p>You are right, it is certainly BECAUSE of wealth that a college can endow chairs – but there are many other ways to spend it than to ensure a high quality teaching environment that enowed professorships generally bring.</p>
<p>With that in mind, does anyone know the numbers of chairs BC has endowed? Some years ago, during a fund campaign (“Ever to Excel”, I think) there was much ballyhoo about establishing 100 new endowed professorships among the other benefits that the drive would realize. I wonder how far along BC has come in that effort.</p>
<p>Usually there are NOT “many other ways to spend it.” Most endowed professorships are established by private donors (who usually get their name attached to the chair) and these donors specify that the money be used for that particular purpose. Since the money is given with strings attached, the school cannot just decide to spend it on something else instead. I believe that relatively few endowed chairs are established by the school itself using unrestricted money.</p>
<p>Also, endowed professorships do not necessarily “ensure a high quality teaching environment.” Although many recipients are indeed chosen for their teaching ability, others are chosen primarily for their scholarly excellence and/or research output rather than their teaching ability.</p>
<p>What information do you expect to gain from knowing the number of endowed professorships at BC or any other university?</p>
<p>Thank you, worried_mom, I stand corrected (er, twice).</p>
<p>If you have the answer to my original question I’d like to have it, but as for your wanting to know why I ask – that’s irrelevant.</p>
<p>Also, you need to read my posts a little more closely. I did not say “necessarily” I said “generally” – about endowed professorships ensuring a high quality teaching environment.</p>
<p>I wasn’t “correcting” you (and I’m sorry you took it that way); I was simply expressing my own opinion that the number of endowed chairs is not really measuring the quality of teaching. And the only reason I had asked why you wanted that number was to see if there might be some other data – some facts that were more readily available – that would serve your purpose. </p>
<p>I have never seen the total number of endowed professorships at BC published anywhere. But one way you could get it is by going through the list of faculty members in the 2009-10 BC Bulletin and counting them, as the named professorships are indicated there.</p>
<p>My dear worried_mom, you WERE correcting me and I am not offended. Don’t worry, I am not a child of the “my self-esteem matters above all else” mode. I think a real disservice has been visited upon our youth by that “well-intentioned”, but misguided philosophy. Excuse the digression.</p>
<p>Good idea, I’ll try to get a copy of the BC bulletin or course catalog.</p>
<p>Here’s the on-line version of the current (2009-10) catalog:
<a href=“http://www.bc.edu/offices/stserv/meta-elements/pdf/0910catalog.pdf[/url]”>http://www.bc.edu/offices/stserv/meta-elements/pdf/0910catalog.pdf</a></p>
<p>Thank you, worried_mom, it was helpful but I am sure that it does not include all of them. I counted around 37 but I’m quite sure the number is closer to at least 50. For some reason there were omissions.</p>
<p>The Economics department for example shows no endowed professors in the catalog, yet if you go to the BC website and look up the department faculty list, there are no fewer than 5 endowed chairs!</p>
<p>It is misleading not to include them and makes Economics there look rather unimportant, when actually it isn’t…</p>