Advance Knowledge and Fuel Discovery

College is all about learning. Southwestern’s faculty serve as guides and mentors to their students throughout their educational journey. In the classrooms, the labs and the library, Southwestern’s students are pushing the envelope toward new discoveries. Through effective thinking—the heart of all Southwestern’s research and inquiry—students acquire problem-solving skills and innovative analytical approaches that continue to inform and shape their discoveries long after graduation. Explore some of the breakthrough projects our faculty and students have undertaken.

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Southwestern strives to hire the most impressive and committed professors who are experts in their academic fields and committed to the success of their students. All tenured or tenure-track faculty hold a doctorate or the highest degree in their respective fields. With a student-to-faculty ratio of 12:1 and an average class size of 18, student-faculty collaborative research and publications are common. Many of our students—in concert with a faculty member or independently—have their work published before graduating.

Want to see more? Visit our Student Research & Creative Works page.

Faculty Chairs & Professorships (Term & Endowed)

Chairs and Professorships are awarded to outstanding faculty and are crucial in the recruitment and retention of highly qualified teachers and researchers. Endowments for faculty scholarship support the research and creative works of the faculty. These endowments become active in the academic year after the total gifts received to the fund exceed a figure between $100,000 and $1.5 million on June 30 (depending on the specific Chair or Professorship).

It is also possible to fund a Term Professorship or Term Chair with annual contributions of $12,500 to $20,000 per year for a term of three to five years. The Term position is awarded to a member of the faculty for a period of time (usually 3-5 years). The annual donation is used to provide a faculty stipend (chair only), research support, and a department budget allocation.

Faculty Development/Scholarship/Creative Works/Sabbaticals

Southwestern’s faculty members are active scholars in their fields. Additional faculty development funding is needed to support research and creative works initiatives, conference travel, sabbaticals, and equipment/supplies/material acquisitions.

The Center for Teaching, Learning, and Scholarship (CTLS) supports faculty as continuously developing teacher-scholars. The center’s work with faculty is formative, confidential, and voluntary. It seeks to:

• promote intentional, evidence-based, and inclusive teaching and learning practices;
• support faculty as they develop their scholarly and creative work and professional activity;
• explore the integration of scholarship and teaching that will enrich the education of Southwestern students;
• support the professional formation and success of faculty across their career stages at Southwestern;
• assist Southwestern faculty and staff in developing courses and curricula, scholarly projects, institutional initiatives, and collaborations across disciplines.

Annual gifts can be directed to any of Southwestern’s academic areas of study to support the faculty with their own scholarly pursuits, purchase equipment, and/or encourage faculty/student collaborative research and creative works.

Academic Departments

Contributions may be directed to any of Southwestern’s academic departments to support the faculty and students in the department with equipment/supplies, research funding, conference travel, awards/prizes, and other department needs.

Library

Quality research of the caliber undertaken by both faculty and students at Southwestern requires the availability of, and access to, a collection of quality materials. However, acquiring and maintaining such a collection is expensive, and consequently the waitlist for requested material is long. Want to help facilitate and further strengthen our faculty and students’ research pursuits? Help provide needed scholarly publications and materials that help expedite their research goals.

In addition to a robust library, Southwestern’s Special Collections creates physical and virtual spaces to experience the history of Southwestern University and Texas as well as the heritage of the printed and written word. Special Collections holds books, manuscripts, and objects of historical and scholarly value that support undergraduate teaching and research, research by Southwestern faculty members, and research by the wider community of scholars. Though we collect with these groups in mind, our collections are open to all who want to use them. Significant collections include Southwestern University archives, Texana, Methodism, hymnals, 19th century American and British works, and works related to Georgetown and Williamson County.

Sarofim School of Fine Arts

Southwestern University is one of a select number of undergraduate liberal arts universities that support a separate school of fine arts. Our Sarofim majors in studio art, art history, music, and theatre complete an engaging and diverse curriculum, specifically designed to prepare graduates for a variety of paths in and out of the arts, including teaching, professional work, and graduate school. Contributions support all aspects of the faculty and student experiences in the fine arts.

Teaching and Learning Innovation

Southwestern’s Center for Teaching, Learning, and Scholarship (CTLS) supports faculty as continuously developing teacher-scholars by promoting intentional, evidence-based, and inclusive teaching and learning practices. The CTLS also provides support for faculty as they develop their scholarly and creative work, professional activity, the development of courses and curricula, scholarly projects, institutional initiatives, and collaborations across disciplines. Such support is very meaningful to our faculty and also greatly impacts the student experience at Southwestern.