Building and maintaining a superior faculty, and helping to back their research efforts, is a significant priority for UMass Amherst.  Top researchers and educators, our faculty strongly influence our reputation as a leader in every discipline. 

Our faculty are among the nation's best with such accomplishments as membership in the National Academies, winners of the Pulitzer Prize, MacArthur genius grants, Guggenheim and Fulbright fellowships, and other coveted awards.  With your help, we commit to the ambitious goal of raising $54 million in private support, nearly doubling from 29 to 54 the number of endowed chairs and professorships at UMass Amherst. 

Relative to peer institutions, we are currently unable to provide equal incentives to attract new stellar faculty and retain those we have:

INSTITUTION ENDOWED CHAIRS & PROFESSORSHIPS*
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 357
Indiana University, Bloomington 292
University of Delaware 127
Iowa State University 124
University of California, Santa Barbara 81
University of Connecticut 80
University of Colorado, Boulder 53
University of Massachusetts Amherst 29 

 *as of Fall, 2012