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Proposals are now being accepted for the Commonwealth Honors College (CHC) Murray Professorship, which offers members of the UMass Amherst faculty the opportunity to enhance the honors experience. Funded by an endowment created by Terrence Murray, the professorship will be awarded for a two or three-year term beginning in the fall of 2025.

In the next Murray Professor, CHC is looking for someone who will work with department faculty from across the university to foster excellent disciplinary and multidisciplinary honors strategies that will help departments improve innovative research and creative practices that are inclusive and diverse, and will support students throughout their thesis endeavors. Such practices can include the development of research literacy workshops, technical writing assistance and mentoring/coaching honors students with the goal of improving the excellence of final written honors thesis, which can be a research manuscript or creative portfolio.

It is expected that the Murray Professor will devote approximately half time to the work of the professorship. The income from the endowment will be available to reimburse the incumbent’s department for the time focused on the professorship and for the expenses of program development.

Guidelines for proposals and details regarding the professorship’s budget can be found below. Proposals should be submitted via email as a PDF attachment to Dominick Usher, CHC senior assistant dean, at dusher@umass.edu no later than Feb. 25. Review of proposals will begin shortly after the deadline, and notification of award will be made no later than mid-April.

For further information, contact Usher or Commonwealth Honors College Dean Mari Castañeda at dean@honors.umass.edu.
 

Guidelines for Preparing a Proposal for the Murray Professorship

The proposal should include:

• A description of the curricular project proposed (2 pages)
• A budget (NOTE: should not include salary or benefits)
• A letter from the candidate’s department chair or head
• The candidate’s CV
• The names and addresses of three people we can contact for references

Project Description 
The project description should present the concept of the interdisciplinary program to be proposed, the target audience(s) (what subset of the staff, faculty and/or student population, if specific) should be described, and an assessment of the expected outcomes, as well as the opportunities created for honors students from this activity. Plans for working with faculty around the university should be addressed, along with a description of how the success of the program will be evaluated. 

Budget
The budget should specify the amount to be distributed to the candidate’s department for the release of time for project work, and specify the kinds of expenses (e.g., program expenses, student assistant, course release, faculty engagement activities, production of materials, etc.) and the amounts that will be needed during program development. These funds will be disbursed directly by Commonwealth Honors College, excluding indirect costs. Any essential expenses should be shown as direct costs within the budget. Plan for not more than $90,000 per year. Funds can carry forward across fiscal years. Note: Funds must be spent during the active grant timeline. At the end of the award period, unspent funds will revert to Commonwealth Honors College. 

Letter from Department Head 
The department head’s letter should clearly state that the faculty member has the department’s support, and the department head concurs with the proposal and the budget. Since the intent of the fellowship is to provide ongoing programming for students, the department head should address how the work of the faculty may continue after the professorship has ended. When the funds are awarded, an MOU will be established with the department.

The Candidate’s CV
The candidate need not have the rank of full professor but should have sufficient reputation within their discipline for an award of distinction within the university.