Subject: Personnel

Policy: Mark & Robyn Jones College of Nursing Endowed Professorship/ Chair Policy

Revised: February 2025

Effective Date: February 2025

Review Date: March 2028

Responsible Party: Level I: MRJCON Dean; Level II: Executive Council

 

Introduction and Purpose: Endowed appointments support the mission and vision of the MRJCON and MSU through support of faculty excellence. To fulfill that goal, endowed appointments are managed in alignment with donors' wishes and to ensure consistency for terms of appointment, annual review, renewal, and management of funds.

Policy: Endowed professorships or chairs are valuable assets for an academic unit allowing recruitment and/or retention of faculty talent, particularly mid-career, scholarship active faculty. An endowed position is created through the generosity of a donor who may specify criteria applying to the appointment. Endowed appointments generally are awarded to faculty who are tenured, unless otherwise specified by donor.

 

Procedures:

  1. Appointment:
    1. Eligibility for endowed appointments requires associate or full professor rank and tenure. Preferred eligibility requires a history of, and current, peer-reviewed funding for research/ scholarly activity (e.g., NIH, NSF, or similar) preferably as a Principal Investigator.
    2. The dean of the MRJCON awards endowed appointments.
    3. A Committee of Endowed Faculty ("Committee") composed of all current endowed faculty in the MRJCON provides advice to the dean on initial appointments.
    4. Initial appointmens require approval of the Provost.
    5. In absence of specific donor instructions, endowed appointments will be made for an initial five-year term, renewable for multiple three-year terms upon meritorious annual performance.
  2. Expectations, annual review, and renewal of appointment:
    1. As part of their regular faculty annual performance evaluations, endowed professors/ chairs will include information: 1) summarizing achievements related to endowed appointment for prior calendar year and 2) settings goals for next calendar year.
    2. Endowed professors/ chairs typically meet with the Dean (or Associate Dean for Research) at least twice annually to discuss scholarship support, current accomplishments, and future goals.
    3. Endowed professors/ chairs are expected to meet with donor/s or other stakeholders on a regular basis.
    4. Meritorious annual performance of endowed appointments includes active scholarship, peer-reviewed funding, excellence in teaching, mentorship of students and junior faculty, and service to the MRJCON and MSU.
    5. Faculty holding an endowed appointment will receive at least 3 months' notice prior to termination of endowed appointment.
  3. Funding:
    1. Endowments generate funds available to the faculty member holding the appointment to be used for the benefit of their scholarship and overall academic success specific to their MRJCON position.
    2. Funds may be used in support of overall academic success such as a summer salary for research, scholarship costs (i.e., research assistance, equipment, conference travel, etc.), and/or additional compensation (see MSU policy Classification and Compensation: Additional Compensation).
    3. Annually, endowed faculty must submit a plan for use of endowment funds for the upcoming fiscal year (i.e., July 1 to June 30) to the Dean for approval by April 15th. (Adjustments to the planned use of endowment funds may be made upon compelling circumstances such as changes in external funding.)
    4. Up to 50% of annual allocations may be carried forward each year but no more than 100% of the annual distribution may be accumulated. Carryover funds should be included in annual spending plan. Unspent monies will revert to the Dean's control for general support of faculty scholarship in the CON.

 

Internal control considerations, if applicable:

MRJCON research office and Dean maintain oversight of budget.