Faculty of Arts and Sciences: Funding Excellence

Friday, October 28, 2022

Tamar Szabó Gendler is Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the Vincent J. Scully Professor of Philosophy, and Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science at Yale.

Tamar Szabó Gendler

Home to the more than 1,000 faculty members who hold primary responsibility for teaching and mentoring the 6,000 undergraduate students of Yale College and the 3,000 graduate students in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences advances, preserves, and disseminates knowledge for the benefit of current and future generations. In service of this ambitious mission, FAS faculty members in fields from English to Economics to Ecology work together to deepen our understanding of fundamental ideas and develop innovative solutions to novel challenges. To make this work possible, Yale must be a place where the most powerful thinkers and dedicated teachers can thrive, where they can access resources to advance their research and teaching, and where they can feel like a vital part of a flourishing community committed to the shared pursuit of knowledge.

Each year, the FAS recruits between 30 and 45 new ladder faculty members, nearly all of whom receive competing offers from other leading institutions. The Faculty Excellence Fund allows the Yale FAS to be uniquely competitive in this challenging recruitment landscape. These immediately deployable funds make it possible for the FAS to act nimbly by offering prospective faculty members the resources that might help them to say “yes” to an offer from Yale. Once new faculty members arrive here, this support allows them to do their best work for years to come.

Alumni support for faculty is critical to these efforts. We are grateful to the cohort of alumni who are supporting faculty excellence at Yale and we hope you’ll consider joining them.

To learn more, watch the April 2021 recording of The Story of Faculty Excellence, a session from the Reunion Giving Speaker Series.