Stories of Support

Stories of Support

Professorships Keep Bowdoin in Top Tier

Bowdoin students are transformed year after year by experiences both inside and outside the classroom, and they continually credit the key role that professors play. With tremendous passion for their work and acute scholarly expertise, professors push students to think in new ways and achieve their intellectual potential.

An important way that Bowdoin attracts and retains outstanding teachers and scholars is through endowed professorships that support faculty members in advancing their creativity and research. Several new professorships have been funded as part of The Bowdoin Campaign, and several are still in need of funding. One of the recently established funds is the Peter M. Small Professorship.

Peter Small of the Class of 1964 comes from a long line of Bowdoin graduates. His son, daughter, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather are alumni, and the family’s commitment to Bowdoin has continued long after the graduation ceremonies. Peter has been chair of the Bowdoin College Board of Trustees since 2005, a member of the board since 1988, and a volunteer for the College in many other capacities.

He recently established a professorship to support career advancement opportunities for mid-level faculty at Bowdoin. This enables the College to recognize associate professors for their work and it also supports these faculty members in their professional research. The professorship provides extraordinary flexibility for advancing Bowdoin’s curriculum; it supports compensation, research and teaching expenses, and sabbatic leaves for a faculty member to fill a chair in any discipline or program at any rank for a number of years.