MORE than $4 million in gifts will create three new professorships at the University of Manitoba -- jobs that might not otherwise have been created for a very long time.
"Yes, it does create positions they otherwise wouldn't get. Donors create opportunities we might otherwise wait longer for," said vice-president external Elaine Goldie.
Goldie said donors can call the shots only in broad terms of where the money can go, and have no say in who gets a job.
And if other faculties or departments can make a case for needing a new position but lack well-heeled grads or others interested in their areas, scarce university funds will pay for that new job, she said.
But large-scale donations do provide new professorship -- which is not only a job for a professor, but a designation that indicates the position also comes with research money, said Goldie.
"Most of our professorships are created with a gift of $1 million" or more, or a gift that has been invested and has grown, she said.
U of M will have a professorship in jazz performance in the Maurice A. Desautels Faculty of Music, thanks to $1 million donation from the Asper Foundation and $200,000 in fundraising.
Nabisco Brands Inc. donated $320,000 in 1985, a gift that's compounded to more than $2 million, a portion of which is creating a professorship in marketing in the Asper School of Business.
The business school will also receive a professorship in supply chain management, through a donation in 2006 of $750,000 from CN.
In the last year or so, U of M has been able to create professorships in the modern history of the middle east and north Africa, and in several medical specialty areas, Goldie said.
When donors propose an area in which they're interested, Goldie said, "It's our job to bring the two together."
Such gifts are welcome, but there are always fears they'll come with too many strings attached over who gets the job or what areas of research are acceptable, said Prof. Brenda Austin-Smith, president of the U of M Faculty Association.
UMFA, she said, wants to make sure all gifts go "in service of unfettered curiosity-driven research."
nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca
PREVIOUS
