Thanks to the Charles A. Dana Foundation’s generosity, Dana Professorships are awarded to selected Ithaca College full professors who have demonstrated a continued record of excellence as well as a promise of outstanding future contributions in teaching, professional endeavor in their area of specialty, and service to college and community. Dana Professors serve as role models and mentors for faculty and students, freely sharing their leadership skills, expertise, advice, and experience with the College’s community and others who seek it. As a result, the Dana Professors’ activities reflect positively on and enhance the College’s national and international reputation as a center for academic and artistic inquiry.
Dana Professorships are awarded for five-year terms, and faculty may reapply for the award at the end of their term. Candidates must be full professors at the time of application and at any stage of their career, although the program actively encourages newly appointed full professors to apply. To qualify, the candidates’ primary area of responsibility at the College must be teaching, with a minimum of six credits per semester.
Details about the application and selection process are available here; as noted there, candidates apply by submitting all materials (cover page, current CV, narrative, and references) via email to provost@ithaca.edu by October 15, 2024. A selection committee consisting of one representative from each School will review applications and make recommendations to the Provost. One professorship to begin in AY 2025-26 and continuing through 2029-30 will be awarded this cycle; we hope to announce awards by March 1, 2025.
Members of the currently active selection committee and their relatives may not apply for the award while they serve on the committee. Relatives are persons related by blood, marriage, or legal procedure and include parents, children, husbands, wives, siblings, first cousins, and in-laws or "step" relatives, and any of the foregoing's uncles, aunts, nieces, nephews, grandparents, and grandchildren.