Department Chairs

One of Stanford Engineering's most pressing needs is to provide its nine departments with the funding necessary to respond quickly in a scientific environment that changes rapidly, and to have the flexibility to pursue unplanned opportunities. Stanford Engineering seeks to establish an endowed Department Chair Fund for each department to provide chairs with the unrestricted income necessary to implement strategic plans and seize exciting opportunities. Each Department Chair Fund will be created with an endowment of $3 million.

Selected by their faculty peers and approved by the dean, department chairs provide guidance and oversight for the full range of scholarly endeavors of the department. Each chair is an able leader whose vision and management skill guides his or her colleagues and, ultimately, the future of the department.

It is both a privilege and a responsibility for a faculty member to serve as a department chair. Among their responsibilities is the stewardship of the department's financial resources. In the face of rising costs, chairs sustain and advance teaching and research in their departments through support from the School of Engineering, gifts to the department, and research funding. However, much of this support is designated for current needs and unavailable to the chair for investment in new ideas and opportunities.

The discretionary income made available by the endowment will be used by each department chair to further the strategic goals of his or her department. For example, this income can provide needed support for new research, new teaching programs, and new technology. Department chairs can provide support to help recruit outstanding faculty, develop new curricula, and seed academic entrepreneurship throughout the department. The endowment will also allow the department's fundraising efforts to gain strength with the ability to leverage support from outside funding sources. While grant-writing and protracted funding cycles will always be part of the academic research process, providing our entrepreneurial faculty with a source of available unrestricted funds will result in increased departmental competitiveness and leadership.

To find out more, please contact a member of the development team.