Bicentennial Professors Fund
SIF136, SIF154, SIF161, SIF169, SIF175, SIF190 Bicentennial Professors Fund
Bicentennial Professors Giving to UVA
Project Manager: Mark Luellen
BoV Approved:
December 2017 (first award of $75M)
April 2018 (second award of $20M)
December 2018 (third award of $75M)
April 2020 (fourth award of $50M derived from $29.9M reallocation of previous awards and $20.1M new funding)
January 2023 (fifth award of $30M new funding: $10M for general use and $20M for University Professorships)
April 2023 (award increased $4M, reallocated from Bicentennial Scholars award).
September 2023 (award ceiling was decreased by $6M with the reallocation of the funds from SIF175)
Project Start Date: 12/09/2017
Total Funding: Up to $218,110,220
Current Status: Active
Impact:
The purpose of this award is to establish a matching fund to incentivize donors to create endowed professorships.
As it prepares to enter its third century of offering one of the best educational experiences in the nation, the University of Virginia is making bold commitments to secure its prominence in the world of higher education. Among them is the Bicentennial Professors Fund. The investment will enable the creation of an estimated 70 endowed professorships, covering not only the salaries for emerging, mid- career and distinguished scholars, but other essential expenses such as the recruitment of graduate students and the acquisition of laboratory space. UVA Today story from March 2020
This is a remarkably successful program. The PAC most recently assessed progress for this award at their February 2024 meeting. As of that reporting date, the University had raised $319.9M with a corresponding SIF match of $216.3M. A total of 132 professorships are to be endowed, 114 have been established by the Board of Visitors, and 55 have been filled.
List of Bicentennial Professorships Established to Date (alphabetical)
List of Faculty Holding Bicentennial Professorships to Date (alphabetical)
New Investment Continues Momentum of Bicentennial Professors Fund
President Jim Ryan on Friday announced that the University of Virginia will invest an additional $50 million into the Bicentennial Professors Fund, a key tool that uses University matching funds to multiply the impact of philanthropic support for endowed professorships.
Since the fund’s creation in 2017, approximately 100 professorships have been endowed through the co-investment of donors and the University – strengthening both the quality of the faculty and UVA’s ability to attract the best instructors as it enters its third century.
Through the end of January, alumni, parents and friends of the University had contributed nearly $195 million for Bicentennial Professorships, with the University providing a match of $127.5 million, for a total of $322 million in faculty support across the institution. The fund is expected to support nearly 150 endowed professorships when complete. Read more...
March 9, 2020