The price of endowed chairs

I know that our department is loved and appreciated because a group of alums has started a campaign to endow a chair in CS. When last I heard, it cost $2 million to endow a chair. I thought that was a lot. Then I talked to Development and Alumni Relations [1]. It appears the price tag has gone up twice since I talked to them. It now costs $3 million to endow a chair for an existing position and $5 million to endow a chair that accompanies a new position [2].

I really appreciate our alumni efforts. However, I see no way that they’ll come up with that much money. $5 million is far into rich old alum and corporate sponsor leagues.

For those prices, I hope that the positions come with better stoles than current ones [3].

[1] DAR. Not to be confused with Daughters of the American Revolution or Youngest Son.

[2] Informal conversation, 2017-10-20. These prices may have gone up again by the time you read this.

[3] Attend Grinnell’s graduation and you’ll see what I mean.

Version 1.0.2 of 2017-10-24.

Original post: Version 1.0.1 of 2017-10-20.