OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT–ACADEMIC AFFAIRS

February 5, 1968

CHANCELLORS:

Re: Professorial Name Chairs

The Board of Regents, in actions taken on November 16, 1962 and May 17, 1963, approved the establishment of Professorial Name Chairs to honor the memory of the University's most distinguished faculty members, in accordance with the following general policies:

(a) The establishment of each Professorial Name Chair, and appointment of each active faculty member thereto, shall be approved by the Regents upon recommendation of the President and the appropriate Chief Campus Officer,* with the advice of the Academic Senate.

(b) The number of name chairs shall be very limited, and these chairs shall carry the names of only the most distinguished of ast professors of the faculty of the University of California; and the occupants of these chairs shall be only the most outstanding of the present members of the University faculty.

(c) The occupant of the chair shall carry the honorary professorial title associated with that chair, but there shall be no other perquisites.

This initiative for this matter began on the Berkeley campus in 1961. Subsequent to the action of the Regents the University Budget Committee has several times discussed general guidelines to be followed in the establishing and filling Name Chairs -- most recently in June, 1966. However, no administrative action has been taken to establish official guidelines supplementary to the policies enunciated by the Regents. No Name Chairs have established or filled. However, the Regents have established at San Francisco the "Regents' Chair of Medical History" and have authorized the appointment of Dr. John B. De C. M. Saunders to this Chair. Further, the Regents authorized the President to indicate to Dr. Saunders their hope that the Chair shall be named in his honor at his retirement.

I would like to have you consider the following tentative supplemental policies and procedures, which are among those recommended by the University Committee on Budget and Interdivisional Relations.

  1. A Chancellor's recommendation to the President, either for establishing or filling a Name Chair, shall be referred by the President to the University Budget Committee for its recommendations. (If the candidate for the Named Chair is not already a member of the faculty, the usual review process for appointment to the faculty shall take place on the campus prior to the Chancellor's recommendation to the President.)

  2. Not more than one Chair shall be established in the University to honor the name of a former faculty member.

  3. A Chair named after a former faculty member shall be established only on the campus where he rendered his service, if he served on only one campus.

  4. The former faculty member whose name is to be honored shall be deceased.

  5. Either a current faculty member or a new appointee to the faculty may be appointed to a Name Chair.

Please let me have from you by April 1, 1968 your comments on the general concept of Professorial Name Chairs and specifically on the five supplemental policies and procedures as here proposed.

Angus E. Taylor

cc: President Hitch
Vice Presidents

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* Chancellor, revised September 22, 2005.