Mack Endowment to be administered by FACET

FACET Class of 2002 steps up to the plate with endowment pledges totaling $20,000

By Richard Doty

Hamilton

Orr

The Marian Mack Endowment for Scholarship and Teaching Excellence is a partnership among the university faculty, its trustees and the communities which surround the eight IU campuses. The endowment has been established by P.A. Mack, an IU trustee from 1992 to 1998, a member of the Indiana Commission for Higher Education and a long-time supporter of teaching excellence at IU. The fund was named after Mack’s late wife.

Sharon Hamilton, co-director of the Faculty Colloquium on Excellence in Teaching (FACET) with Robert Orr, an IUPUI professor of computer technology, said Mack and his wife were actively and enthusiastically involved in colloquium activities for several years. “Their commitment to teaching and learning is extraordinary,” said Hamilton, Chancellor’s Professor of English and director of the Office of Campus Writing at IUPUI.

Mack was named an honorary FACET member in 1997 and later received the first P.A. Mack Award for Distinguished Service to Teaching. “In higher education, it is exceptional for a trustee to be so honored,” Orr said, “but in the case of P.A., it is most deserving because FACET would not have the success it has achieved without his unwavering support.”

When creation of the Mack Endowment was announced at the annual FACET retreat in May, Susan Moffett, an IU Southeast professor of fine arts, and David Malik, a professor of chemistry at IUPUI, jumped to their feet and pledged $1,000 each to the endowment. They were immediately followed by several others who pledged from $500 to $1,000. By the end of the meeting, some $20,000 had been pledged from 35 members.

“We were startled by such an unplanned outpouring of support for this project,” said Hamilton.

The endowment for the Mack Center for Inquiry on Teaching and Learning will be administered by FACET through the IU Foundation. Funds generated by the endowment, with an initial capitalization of $25,000, will be used to advance teaching and learning through activities of exceptional merit. Donations will be matched by the IU Foundation. Community support is expected to be pursued, with an initial gift from former U.S. Sen. Birch Bayh leading the way.

Plans are now under way for a committee to establish a charter for the center, with one FACET member from each of the eight IU campuses serving on the committee. The committee will be responsible for developing the center’s charter, its operating principles and criteria for selection of subsequent Mack Center fellows. Initial plans call for each charter fellow to receive a $1,000 stipend for their effort.

FACET was established in 1989 to promote and sustain teaching excellence and now has some 350 members from throughout the statewide IU system. FACET activities, such as teaching colloquia, workshops and institutes, were greatly expanded by IU President Myles Brand in 2000, when he provided an ongoing base budget for FACET. Brand also has supported the matching fund concept for the Mack Endowment.