Dear Members of the Carnegie Mellon University Community:
We are delighted to announce two new endowed funds that will support faculty work in the arts and humanities, and help connect the broader university community to that work.
In partnership with deans Dan Martin and Richard Scheines and their department heads, we identified the humanities and the arts as two areas in which other research funding is scarce, and where additional support will have a large impact. To meet that need, we have created two new endowed funds of $1 million each, the proceeds of which will be awarded annually by the deans to support research and other faculty work in the arts and humanities. We have also challenged the deans and department chairs to join us in an effort to raise funds to match these university resources, doubling the impact.
By helping to foster creativity in the arts and new knowledge in the humanities, these funds will contribute to the university’s unique tapestry of academic and artistic strength. The funds will fuel small projects that are vibrant and promising, but for which little or no outside funding is available. We see this as an important step in a much larger effort to support long-term excellence in these fields, assisting in the recruitment and development of outstanding faculty.
The deans and department chairs have already begun discussions about the processes for matching and allocating these funds. More details will be available this fall.
With warm regards,
Subra Suresh, President
Farnam Jahanian, Provost-designate