The Philosophy Department Fund for Excellence plays a crucial role in the overall effort to strengthen the department and its impact on the campus. The fund provides support for academic and faculty/student programs in the Department of Philosophy. With this fund, the department chair has the flexibility to support important programs and initiatives when other sources of funding are not available or are inadequate to fulfill the need.
Examples include travel expenses for faculty and graduate students to deliver papers at national and international conferences; assistance in acquiring the foreign languages needed for their research; department activities at the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy each year, including a much-anticipated reception that is generally by far the largest at the gathering; and department conferences, as well as receptions for speakers visiting the department.
The fund also supports the Undergraduate Philosophy Club and its activities, such as graduation expenses, including support for the alum speaker, the reception and the special “Socratic Legacy” books, signed by all faculty members, given out to three undergraduates.
