New endowed professorship advances ‘Democracy and Its Technologies’ strategic initiative
Lafayette College today announced an anonymous $3 million alumni donation to create a new endowed professorship that will support the “Democracy and Its Technologies” priority of the recently approved strategic plan.
One of the five priorities of Lafayette’s new strategic plan, Becoming Lafayette: A Vision for Our Third Century, “Democracy and Its Technologies” focuses on both critical and celebratory aspects of democracy and the technologies that mediate it. Through this newly established professorship, the College will be able to support a teacher-scholar dedicated to expanding Lafayette’s already considerable expertise at the critical intersections of democracy and technology.
“Thanks to this transformative gift, the College will advance its leadership in an area of critical importance to our nation and, in fact, our society,” says President Nicole Hurd. “We are grateful for this investment in our faculty and the teaching, scholarship, and research through which they are empowering our students as global citizens and helping them shape a more informed and responsible future.”
Through endowed professorships, donors provide funds that create a financial resource in perpetuity to support the work of Lafayette’s teacher-scholars. This professorship will support the work of a faculty member whose expertise propels the evolving “Democracy and Its Technologies” initiative, which extends outside of the classroom and research lab, and will drive opportunities that promote civic participation both on campus and in the community.
“Our faculty are doing amazing work in these areas, both in their scholarship and out in the world,” says Provost Laura McGrane. “We are participants in a democratic experiment that has been built and challenged over the centuries through technologies from print to Python. This generous gift expands our reach, as we recognize that the technologies through which we participate in democracies also undergird every aspect of our everyday lives. How we build that technology, how our society shapes it, who gets to use it, how it channels our voices—these are the decisions that draw us together globally.”
Lafayette’s endowed professorships support faculty excellence across the curriculum. The College is fortunate to have more than 30 endowed chairs, professorships, and positions. This new endowed professorship to support “Democracy and Its Technologies” is the second one announced in a matter of weeks to support Lafayette’s new strategic plan, joining the Birle Family Endowed Professorship in Interdisciplinary Scholarship and Research.
Major gift announcements supporting Lafayette’s new strategic plan: