Endowed chairs

Depending on the type of endowment that is established, the annual payout from endowed faculty funds provides the chairholder with an annual scholarly allowance to support their teaching and research, as well as funds for graduate students in their field. Resources are also directed to support campus investment for faculty salaries in the area supported by the endowment.

Endowed chairs are reserved for distinguished scholars and teachers. Chairs may be used to honor a distinguished colleague or to attract a valuable new member of the faculty to the Berkeley campus. An administrative endowed chair provides funds in support of the teaching, research, and service activities of the department, research unit, school, or college.

Many of the campus endowed chairs are “rotating” endowed chairs. These chairs can move between departments and/or divisions; upon the appointment end date, the chair is either renewed or goes to another professor in a different field. The Academic Personnel Office (APO) manages these chair appointments for campus.

New beginning in fiscal year 2021-22: The Office of the Vice Chancellor of Finance (OCFO) will no longer send the funds for filled Rotating Endowed Chairs to the allocation DeptID of the chairholder's home division. University Development and Alumni Relations (UDAR) will transfer the annual payout to divisions’ DeptIDs directly. UDAR will use the same convention as with other endowment payouts: a revenue account with a quarterly distribution for Foundation Endowed Chairs and an operating transfer account with an annual distribution for Regents Endowed Chairs. Since these payouts will not pass through OCFO, Divisional Finance Leaders (DFLs) will need to plan for these payouts accordingly in their budgets. Please refer to the List of Rotating Endowed Chairs that passed through OCFO for more information.

If you want to update the payout DeptID for your Rotating Endowed Chair, please contact Fund Management directly at fundhelp@berkeley.edu.

Due to this transition, DFLs no longer need to provide a budget to OCFO or queue the commitment for disbursal. DFLs will be responsible for the budget and funding processes for these chairs in the same way they are responsible for their own divisional and departmentally held endowed chairs. We have provided a sample budget template for your convenience below, but it is not required.

For endowed chairs that have no appointed chairholder, the OCFO will temporarily hold the payout on the Central Ledger with the special CF2 (3NECH) until the chair is appointed, at which time funding will be transferred to the appropriate department.

Select an action from the choices below. If none of these meet your needs, email us at dfl_concierge@berkeley.edu