Board of Trustees chairman Gerald J. Ford has pledged $1 million to establish a research fellowship program aimed at helping the university to retain and recruit quality faculty members.
University president R. Gerald Turner announced the gift during the fall general faculty meeting Wednesday.
“The quality of every university is only as good as the quality of the faculty,” he said. “The Gerald J. Ford Research Fellowship Program will enhance SMU’s continued progress as an outstanding teaching and research university through the support of research by exceptional scholars in diverse disciplines.”
The $1 million will be used to support two programs over ten years.
The Early Career Research Fellowship will offer summer research grants or regular semester support to set up research for four newly appointed faculty members. Each of the four professors will receive $10,000 over a period of two years.
The Ford Research Fellowship will targeted continuing faculty. The fund will provide summer stipends of $15,000 over a period of two years to fund the research of four continuing professors each year.
The stipends will be awarded on a staggered basis so that four professors from both programs will receive their first year’s funding while the other four will receive the second half of their fellowship.
Provost Ross Murfin said the money could be used for anything from course relief-allowing a first-year professor to take on a lighter course load while he sets up his research programs-to allowing a professor to research rather than teach during the summer. The fellowship can also be applied towards books or travel as related to the professor’s individual research program.
“This fellowship is a mark of confidence in the current faculty’s work,” said Faculty Senate President Bill Bridge. “This will help us recruit new faculty and support the excellent faculty we already have.”
Ford, who has served at the helm of several financial institutions, has held a position on the university’s Board of Trustees since 1992 and became its chairman this summer after the term of former board president Ruth Altschuler ended last spring.
Ford earned both his undergraduate and advanced degree at SMU. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics in 1966 and a juris doctor from School of Law in 1969.
He donated $20 million to SMU’s football stadium, which opened in 2000 and bears his name. He has also supported the SMU Annual Fund, President’s Scholars Program and Dedman College.
In 1997, he received the SMU’s Mustang Award in honor of his service and philanthropy, which has had a long-term impact on the university.
“We are very thankful to Gerald Ford for his wonderfully magnanimous gift,” Murfin said. “Improving faculty research is an important element in SMU’s rise to national stature.”
