The First Horizons University Professorship

The First Horizons Foundation established the First Horizons University Professorships Program to help the University retain its best and brightest faculty and to advance the University's goal to become a first-rate urban research university.

Process & Information

• Faculty members, department chairs, or other college administrators can nominate eligible recipients.
  
  
• The Provost, with input from an advisory faculty group, would select the recipient(s) of a University Professorship subject to the approval of the President of the University.
  
  
• Awardees would be allowed to use their allocations for salaries, travel, supplies, or other expenses in any proportion they choose, as long as the total sum does not exceed the annual award amount.
  
  
• The actual amount of the salary supplement and miscellaneous awards may vary slightly from year-to-year due to investment income results, but would usually be approximately $5,000 per year for full professors and $2,500 per year for associate professors.
  
  
• Continued salary increases would be computed on the awardee's base salary, less the value of the supplemental income related to the University Professorship.
  
  
• Upon relinquishing the University Professorship, the faculty member's salary would revert to his/her base, including any routine salary increases provided during the period of the award, but less the supplemental increase associated with the University Professorship.
   

 Criteria

• Full and associate tenured professors with ten (10) years of service at the University of Memphis are eligible for the program.
  
  
• Associate professors with five (5) years of service at the University are eligible for the program.
  
  
• Awardees would hold University Professorships for a maximum of three (3) years.
  
  
• Selection will be based upon the quality of the faculty member's teaching, research, and service/outreach, with a priority given to faculty contributing in all three areas.