New President’s Challenge for Graduate Fellowship Support

President Mary Sue Coleman has created a new gift challenge program to enhance support for graduate students as a concluding phase of the current Michigan Difference Campaign. Every $2 contributed for graduate support will be matched by $1 from the President’s Challenge Fund.

Why graduate and professional student support?
Michigan competes with top universities around the world for the best graduate students—students who rely on financial support to fund their study and research. By leveraging your gift through the Phase II Challenge, you can help educate a new generation of professors, researchers, ecologists, environmental consultants, teachers and more, to shape our world, while also helping Michigan recruit and retain the star faculty who want to teach them.

The two-to-one match will apply to gifts to existing named endowments or expendable accounts, as well as to gifts that the donor requests be directed to EEB’s general graduate student fellowship fund. In order to establish a new named endowment for graduate student support a minimum gift or pledge of $50,000 is needed. You may designate your gift either as endowed or expendable; undesignated gifts are considered expendable under U-M guidelines. If your gift is designated for endowment, distributions from the fund shall be made in accordance with U-M's existing endowment distribution policy. If the university's endowment minimum is not met for the department’s graduate support fellowship endowment, all gifts will be used on an expendable basis for graduate support within the department. 

The challenge began September 1, 2007, and continues until $40 million is committed in gifts or the Michigan Difference Campaign ends on December 31, 2008, whichever comes first. Donors can extend their gifts over a period of five years, and it will all be matched as long as the pledge with first payment is received within the designated time frame of the challenge. For this challenge, corporate matches for an employee's gift are eligible for a match if the money comes in within the designated time frame of the challenge ($40M raised or Dec. 31, 2008). Hence donors are encouraged to make their gifts as soon as possible. Please also note the advice on the deadline for tax deductions for charitable gifts in this tax year.

You make the difference for graduate and professional students at Michigan
The Phase II Challenge for graduate and professional student support enables you to help the university recruit the “best of the best,” and attract and retain the exceptional faculty who want to teach them—advancing knowledge and improving our world.

You can make a donation to:

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, President’s Challenge for Graduate Support
To provide graduate support in the College of Literature, Science and the Arts in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

Or if you prefer, you can donate to one of our existing EEB endowments:

Helen Olson Brower Fellowship
A fellowship to be awarded annually to a student pursuing graduate work in applied studies for the conservation of natural resources.

Emma J. Cole Fellowship
A fellowship for a graduate student at the University of Michigan who is pursuing studies in botany.

Angeline Whittier Fellowship
A fellowship for a graduate student at the University of Michigan who is pursuing studies in botany.

Peter Olaus Okkelberg
A scholarship fund for outstanding zoology graduate students with a focus in anatomy, cytology or embryology.

ES George Reserve Scholarship
Scholarships to enhance the research of excellent students at the George Reserve

To make a donation, you may call (888) 518-7888 (toll-free) or (734) 647-6179 (local) 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. EST or print a donor card here and mail to: U-M Gift Administration, 3003 S. State St., Suite 8000, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1288. 

Read more at the Michigan Difference web site.

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LSA ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY

T H E  V I S I O N
The study of biodiversity - the structure and function of the rich diversity of life beyond humans and how it interacts with humans - is fundamental to understanding the natural world around us and to managing this world for coexistence with humans. The Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) started in 2001 from part of the former Department of Biology. With our great strengths in areas such as community ecology, molecular evolution and systematics and our outstanding facilities, including the university's research museums and field stations, we are already one of the top ten departments in the United States for research and graduate education in the biodiversity sciences. Our goal is to further enhance our programs to make the University of Michigan the premier institution in this discipline for undergraduate education, graduate training, and faculty research.

T H E  V A L U E
The Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology embraces education and research on virtually all aspects of the study of organisms. We study the origins and history of species ranging from bacteria to humans, the processes by which this diversity has evolved, and the ecological context in which this evolution takes place. These basic sciences underlie some of the most important applied sciences in the world today, such as sustainable agriculture, emergence and spread of infectious diseases, global climate change, invasive and exotic species, conservation biology, natural resource management, and evolution of pesticide and antibiotic resistance. EEB offers an innovative concentration in ecology and evolutionary biology, as well as providing outstanding, broad-based undergraduate education in the life sciences through the Program in Biology, run jointly with our sister Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology. Through our partnership with the intercollegiate undergraduate Program in the Environment, we also contribute towards the interdisciplinary study of all aspects of the environment.

T H E  D I F F E R E N C E
To fulfill its mission and ensure continuing excellence, the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology must fully support the following areas:

Named Endowed Professorship
$2 million endowed
In order to achieve a higher level of excellence for our students, it is important to attract the best faculty to our program. An endowed gift of $2 million will establish a Named Endowed Professorship, ensuring a continuing legacy of distinguished faculty leadership for EEB.

Graduate fellowships and research support
$37,500 annually
$1.5 million endowment
The study of ecology and evolution at Michigan has long attracted outstanding graduate students who go on to fill key faculty positions around the country and, indeed, the entire world. We are also proud that our students are known for their outstanding teaching skills as well as their research. We need to provide fellowships and tuition to continue to attract the very best graduate students to study at  Michigan. Research support is also needed to enable our students to carry out research at the cutting edge of the biodiversity disciplines and could range from purchasing laboratory or field equipment and supplies, to travel to other laboratories or remote field sites. We especially need to increase endowments so that students can have long-term, stable sources of funding. An endowment of $750,000 will provide enough annual funds to provide one graduate fellowship. We are seeking two endowed graduate fellowships.

Undergraduate scholarships
$25,000 annually
$1.5 million endowment
Scholarships are essential if EEB is going to recruit the best students to Michigan and continue to enhance the quality of its program. Funding for tuition support for both in-state and non-resident students is especially critical to ensure excellence and a diverse community of students. Although an endowment ensures a scholarship in perpetuity, an expendable gift to cover these tuition or living costs on a yearly basis is also of great value. Summer scholarships are equally important to allow undergraduate students to conduct research with faculty during the summer, whether in laboratories in Ann Arbor or at field sites around the world. We are seeking three $500,000 endowed undergraduate scholarships that would each provide $25,000 annually for one student.

Postdoctoral fellowships to increase diversity in the sciences
$50,000 annually
$1 million endowed
Numerous studies have reported that the number of scientists being trained is insufficient to meet national needs and that remedying this gap will require reaching out more to currently underrepresented groups. To help meet this need, we would like to fund two postdoctoral fellowships a year for young scientists who would increase diversity in our department and in the national workforce. Endowing this program requires $1 million to provide $50,000 per year.

Visiting Scholar Program
$50,000 annually
$1 million endowed
An endowment of $1,000,000 will provide $50,000 to host a visiting distinguished scholar for one semester each year to bring fresh perspectives to the department. We envision a highly prestigious fellowship awarded to a distinguished scholar in the biodiversity disciplines, who would spend a semester in the department, offering a course in the area of her/his specialization, and meeting with students and faculty.

Distinguished Lecture Series
$25,000 annually
$500,000 endowed
Our lecture series is one of the most important functions in our department: Faculty and students gather together for presentations by visiting scholars on the newest exciting developments in the fields of ecology, evolutionary biology and conservation biology. The discussions and debates that follow these presentations in hallways, classrooms and research laboratories have long-lasting impacts on students and faculty alike. Without a stable source of funding for this series, however, we are restricted in whom we can invite and the frequency of such presentations. An endowment of $500,000 will provide $25,000 annually to fully fund a series of weekly lectures by visiting distinguished scientists.

Michigan Young Scientists Symposium in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
$25,000 annually
$500,000 endowed
Since 2004, we have held an annual symposium to which the most promising young national and international scientists are invited to give research seminars and participate in discussions on a particularly exciting and innovative topic in our discipline. We use this symposium to help recruit new faculty from among the rising stars in the field and to showcase the intellectual vitality of our department. A gift of $500,000 will provide $25,000 annually to ensure the long-term stability of this symposium and to reach our goal of making it one of the most prestigious events in our discipline.

Department Strategic Fund
$150,000 annually
Each year, expendable funds are a vital means of addressing urgent needs for the Department, providing key resources, and increasing our ability to take advantage of opportunities as they arise. Gifts to the Department Strategic Fund are therefore critical to the ongoing development of the department.

In addition to the various kinds of support discussed elsewhere in this document, our priorities include:

* Faculty mini-grants to provide seed money to fund faculty exploratory projects and to initiate data collection. These start-up projects are necessary to perform preliminary research, enabling the faculty to apply for larger grants from external sponsors.

* Support for course development. Resources needed to develop a new course or enhance an existing course could include purchase of new equipment, faculty release time to develop new curricula and laboratory or field exercises, and training for faculty in methods based on recent pedagogical research.

* Department equipment. New technology for the life sciences is being developed at an extraordinary rate and our faculty need to have access to these facilities to keep their teaching and research at the cutting edge.

* Building renovations. Renovations for teaching and research laboratories are a major expense but critical to sustain and enhance the academic and research activities in the department. Currently, EEB works year-to-year and project-by-project to fund strategic initiatives.

An endowed gift of $3 million, generating approximately $150,000 per year, would establish a Named Department Strategic Fund, assuring that needs will be met as they arise on a continuing basis.

All donors will be eligible for Presidential Society Recognition opportunities, including the President's Club ($15,000), the Tappan Society ($50,000) and the Hutchins Society ($100,000).

C O N T A C T  I N F O R M A T I O N
LSA Development, Marketing & Communications
College of LSA
524 South Main Street
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104-2921
P.734.998.6255
F.734.998.6250
www.lsa.umich.edu