Kenyon welcomes endowment investment in many areas, but we are focused on three critical areas: our new integrated student experience, or pathways, as well as scholarships and professorships. In addition, we can grow Kenyon’s travel-embedded courses with additional investment.
Integrated student experience
Work is underway to create Kenyon pathways or themes to introduce students to an evolution of the liberal arts — one that transcends the boundaries between classroom and on-the-ground experiences and addresses the pressing challenges of today’s world through interdisciplinary engagement. Our research shows that these reflect the interest of today’s incoming students while aligning with Kenyon’s mission and academic approach.
Scholarships
Currently, 85% of Kenyon students receive some form of financial aid, from a combination of operating support and endowed funds. We want every student who would excel at Kenyon to have a chance to come here, regardless of need. With a larger endowment we can make Kenyon affordable for promising students regardless of their financial circumstances. Each year we turn away many qualified students simply because we cannot meet their financial need. Growing our endowment for scholarships will help address both of these challenges and bring us to the level of our peers in an increasingly competitive higher education landscape.
Professorships
Kenyon is home to 200 talented faculty members who work closely with students as mentors and partners in inquiry. Of these positions, just 26 are endowed professorships or chairs, meaning the holder’s salary and benefits are supported by an endowed fund. In creating such a fund, a donor provides a permanent source of funding for the position. (Kenyon also has one endowed head coach position and two with The Gund.)
Endowed faculty positions play a crucial role in attracting, retaining and developing Kenyon’s faculty, who are central to our students’ experiences and Kenyon’s stellar reputation.
For more information about giving to or creating an endowed fund, please contact Kate Daleiden, senior director of major and planned giving
Kate Daleiden
