Endowed faculty professorships and chairs provide significant benefits in recruiting and retaining outstanding faculty at the University. These endowed gifts greatly enrich support for the teaching and research activities of distinguished faculty and bring public recognition of their status.

Faculty professorships and chairs may be used to supplement the base salaries of faculty members as authorized in the endowment. Endowment expenditures must be consistent with the terms of the endowment agreement. The use of endowment funds for faculty compensation in the form of base salary or a supplement to base salary may be allowed.

A faculty professorship or chair appointment is an at-will appointment, subject to the authority of the administrative official, for either an indefinite period subject to review at least every five years (not to be interpreted as life-time) or a limited specified period.

Endowment appointment process

The appointment process for endowed faculty fellowships, professorships and chairs in the College of the Environment follows the Faculty Appointment & Stewardship Timeline. For each endowment appointment request, the unit should submit the following documents to the Dean’s Office Human Resources at envhr@uw.edu by April 15th of each year so that the completed appointment materials can be uploaded into Workday by the May 1st deadline.

  • Letter from the Chair/Director to the Dean requesting the appointment or reappointment
  • Selection Committee Report (if applicable); please follow the Endowment Agreement’s selection procedures (via committee, Chair/Director selection, etc.)
  • Candidate’s CV
  • Copy of Endowment Agreement
  • For Initial/New Endowment; 1 – 2 paragraph biography highlighting the candidate’s qualifications
  • For Reappointment; 1 – 2 paragraph statement highlighting accomplishments during prior endowment/chair, and forward-looking statement for future plans

If approved by the Dean of the College of the Environment, these materials and the Dean’s concurrence memo will be returned to the unit for input into Workday. If the Provost concurs with the recommendation, the nomination for the Professorship or Chair is submitted on behalf of the President to the Board of Regents. Faculty Fellowships are approved by the Provost. A Professorship or Chair appointment cannot be announced until formal approval has been granted by the Board of Regents.

If this is a new Endowment, an Academic Personnel Administrator (in the Integrated Service Center) creates/edits a named professorship appointment in Workday and associates it with the faculty member’s academic appointment.  If this is an established Endowment, the unit will add the appointment in Workday.

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