It's been said that the true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit. Endowing a professorship at a great university like IU expresses the same kind of abiding faith in the future of the human race.
— Joe Hoffmann
Harry Pratter
Professor of Law
Faculty Endowments
Indiana University is ambitious. Our goal is to fill every faculty position with a scholar whose research is impeccable and whose teaching ignites imaginations.
Endowed chairs and professorships provide IU with the ability to realize our goal by providing the financial means to recruit and retain the world's best teachers, artists, and researchers. As such, these prestigious endowments are among IU's most vital tools for maintaining a distinguished faculty and assuring our position as one of the world's great research universities.
Faculty endowments allow professors to focus on their area of specialization and to develop new approaches to course curricula. A well-designed endowment can also provide funds for library or equipment acquisitions, making a program more attractive to gifted undergraduate and graduate students. By becoming the benefactor of such an endowment, you honor a lifetime of scholarly achievement and make its impact permanent.
