UC Berkeley Gets $113M to Corral Profs

Gift will slow loss of good teachers to richer, private schools
By Sam Gale Rosen,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 10, 2007 8:35 AM CDT
UC Berkeley Gets $113M to Corral Profs
University of California at Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau speaks on the UC Berkeley campus in Berkeley, Calif., in this July 27, 2004, file photo. Officials at UC Berkeley are hoping a $113 million donation from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation will help them fend off elite private schools...   (Associated Press)

UC Berkeley will announce a $113 million gift today, which the school will use to create 100 new endowed chairs—hopefully slowing the emigration of professors to the juicier paychecks offered by private universities. The gift is unusual in that it will go straight to ordinary activities rather than building a new building or program.

Berkeley's Chancellor says it's been tough holding on to good faculty in the face of funding cuts and better-endowed competitors. "It's an unrelenting battle," he says. The gift, from the William and Flora Hewitt Foundation, will provide permanent sources of funding for big-name professors and their research. (More endowed chair stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X