Iowa State University Alumni Association| online edition | fall 2004

FALL 2004
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Cover Story:
Surviving Stroke

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37 things to do on an ISU football weekend

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A new tradition

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A letter from Kristi Kielhorn
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THE IMPORTANCE OF FACULTY SUPPORT:
A Q&A WITH PROVOST BEN ALLEN

During the last academic year, donors to the ISU Foundation helped create six new endowed faculty positions that will help Iowa State attract and retain the best and brightest minds to Ames. Provost Ben Allen talks about the importance of faculty support in securing a bright future for ISU and its students.

Q: What are the challenges of recruiting and retaining faculty at ISU?

A: Finding and keeping highly qualified faculty members is a challenge for every university. Most people outside of higher education don’t realize how competitive it can be. We certainly have a number
of advantages working in our favor – Ames is a wonderful community in which to work and live, our campus is one of the most beautiful in the country, and the institution’s reputation for academic achievement, teaching, and research is excellent. Just as in the private sector, though, the decision to accept a job offer typically hinges on the compensation and benefits. It’s what makes or breaks the deal.

Q: You mention ISU’s reputation. Isn’t that enough to lure a candidate to Ames?

A: The university’s reputation certainly gets a candidate’s attention, but you have to remember where the reputation came from in the first place – our faculty. Many key national rankings are based on the efforts of an institution’s faculty: publication in key journals, research efforts, graduation rates, etc. These efforts require significant resources, often beyond what limited university budgets can support. If we want to keep our reputation as a premier land-grant university, we must have the very best faculty leading that charge.

Q: Many public institutions in the country – including ISU – are facing several consecutive years of declining state appropriations. Do the private dollars that support faculty replace those state dollars used for salaries?

A: Private support is not intended to replace public funding – it enhances it. Earnings from endowed faculty accounts are what we like to call “margin of
excellence” dollars. They allow faculty members to fund research, subscribe to highly specialized journals and other publications, support student collaborators, and travel to conferences and seminars. These funds allow for the professional development of our faculty beyond what is typically budgeted for in a college or department.

Q: How would you classify ISU’s position in the competitive arena of faculty recruitment, then?

A: It’s gradually improving, largely because of recent efforts to create more endowed faculty positions. The Investing in People initiative that was launched at President Geoffroy’s installation in 2002 garnered $10.8 million in endowed faculty support. Many of those gifts are deferred and won’t be available in the near future. So while we’re positioning ourselves well for the future, there is certainly an immediate need for the resources to create these positions.

Q: How then would you classify the importance of private faculty support at ISU?

A: It’s one of the top two priorities in our fundraising efforts, the other being scholarship support. Our faculty is what makes this university great, and we need to do everything we can to keep those who are making significant contributions here, and recruit the highest quality faculty to ISU. There’s significant competition from the private sector, who often recruit faculty members away from
higher education with offers of higher salaries, stock options, etc. More endowed faculty positions allow us to compete with those lucrative offers.
In real estate, the mantra is “location, location, location;” in higher education, it’s “faculty, faculty, faculty.”

About the Writer | Jason Menke is the assistant director of communications for the ISU Foundation.