Endowed chairs and professorships are one the highest academic awards that the University can bestow on a faculty member, with some named entities being as old as the University itself. Thus, it is both an honor to the named holder of the appointment and also an enduring tribute to the donor who helped establish it.
Current Chairholders
A list of current endowed chairholders is maintained on the Provost’s website.
Endowed chairs and professorships are governed by the Policy Relating to the Naming of University Assets and the Policy on the Approval of Contracts and Designation of Signing. For questions related to the establishment or disestablishment of an endowed chair, please contact the academic.personnel [at] mcgill.ca (Academic Personnel Office).
Procedure for Selection, Appointment and Reappointment
The appointment of an endowed chair or professorship may proceed once the chair or professorship has been established. The following steps also apply to direct-funded (limited-term) chairs and professorships.
- The Dean monitors the endowed chairs under the Faculty’s purview for vacant chairs and chairs coming up for renewal. The Dean strikes a committee to initiate the selection or renewal process as necessary. It is recommended that the committee initiate the review six months in advance of the appointment or reappointment date to allow sufficient time for all steps to be finalized.
- A Faculty committee charged with the selection carries out its search and forwards a report in support of its recommendation to the Dean of the Faculty.
- The Faculty submits the appointment or reappointment dossier in Workday via the process “Add Additional Job” (new appointment) or “Change Job” (reappointment) to add/reappoint this appointment to the professor’s employment record. Please note that the field "Academic Stipend Research Named Entities" is the salary stipend and not the research allocation. Once this process is finalized Workday generates a board letter to the Chairholder and Endowed Chair/Professorship Research Fund Guidelines*. Information regarding adding/changing a job can be found in the Quick Reference Guide: Add Job, Quick Reference Guide: Change Job for All Employee Groups and Change Job: Reappointment (Academic) – Job Aid (Stipend Positions section).
*Note: The Endowed Chair/Professorship Research Fund Guidelines are currently a mandatory step in Workday for all endowed appointments. If the endowed appointment does not include a research allocation, this form will be modified to reflect that it does not apply to them, but they will still be required to accept the form.
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DOCUMENTATION |
DESCRIPTION |
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Dean's memo |
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Selection or Review Committee Report (for appointments only) |
Appointments require a selection committee report outlining the criteria used to assess the candidate. |
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Curriculum Vitae |
The candidate’s current CV |
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Chairholder Progress Report (for reappointments only) |
The chairholder’s report on activities and accomplishments achieved during the latest term of the chair. |
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Capital and Spend Fund Balances (for Hospital-based Chairs only) |
Confirmation of the Capital Fund book value and units and the balance in the spend fund. |
- Once the appointment or reappointment process has been finalized, the Faculty then initiates any compensation adjustments to the professorial position if the spending fund supports a portion of the salary. The spending fund of the Chair or Professorship (restricted fund 2XXXXX) must be used in the fund section. Information regarding modifying a costing allocation can be found in the Costing Allocation – Job Aid.
- If there is a research allocation the Faculty must process this outside of Workday.
- Endowment Accounting will only transfer research funds once the Endowed Chair/Professorship Research Fund Guidelines document is acknowledged as accepted by the Chairholder in Workday. The Chairholder will have a maximum of six months after the appointment end date to deplete any research fund balance, after which the research fund will be closed and any unspent balance returned to the endowment capital fund.