Faculty Enhancement Foundation
From Dean Mason: Achieving the Vision
One of the challenges facing the College is our ability to provide funds to attract and keep the faculty profile required to move into the top tier of the nation’s business schools. To meet this challenge, the Culverhouse College of Commerce Board of Visitors has established a Faculty Enhancement Foundation. The purpose of this Foundation is to enable The University of Alabama to develop one of the nation’s leading business schools by providing the resources needed to attract the most experienced and renowned professors to its ranks.
Developing a national reputation in business education requires vision, leadership, and financial resources. A strategic plan is in place to move the College to among the nation’s elite. The opportunity for the College to partner with the private sector to build an even stronger business school is certainly an attractive one for the College, the State’s economic climate and the business community in general. Beyond question, providing a stable base for salary support of top faculty is the top priority in putting together the pieces necessary for the College to be competitive on a national basis.
We must capitalize now on the good will and excellent reputation that the College has developed among alumni and friends in the business community. Our future depends on it. The creation of a substantial endowment for faculty salaries is absolutely necessary to enable the College to become one of the nation’s premier business schools. No investment is likely to do more to help create a positive image for the state and to create the human capital needed to retain and attract industry providing excellent wages and benefits for Alabama residents. Our competitor institutions are already ahead of us in the investments being made in higher education. We must act now or abandon any pretense of a commitment to offer our students an experience that is excellent when measured by national standards.
Please join us in this important initiative. We stand ready to assist in any way possible in joining with the private sector to establish the final piece of the infrastructure necessary to ensure that the College is truly excellent when measured by national standards.
