by Barbara Sutherland Chovanec

A self-proclaimed "political junkie" accepted CMU's only endowed chair position in the hope of inspiring students to political activism. 

Bill Ballenger fills CMU's Robert and Marjorie Griffin Endowed Chair in American Government, named for the two CMU alumni who established the endowed fund. 

Ballenger teaches a seminar course, "Michigan Politics and Public Policy," and coordinates special projects to increase awareness of state politics among students and the university community. 

"I'm kind of like a visiting fireman, a mercenary brought in from the outside to try to bring as many students as I can up to speed on Michigan politics and government and instill in them the enthusiasm to go on from here and make it a career," Ballenger says. 

"I'm not saying they have to run for office. I would like them to at least be people who are really solid citizens and really care about government and politics." 

Endowments are important because they provide permanent sources of funding for positions and programs and don't depend on the peaks and valleys of public funding, says Mike Leto, vice president of development and alumni relations. 

In the political science department, the Griffin Endowed Fund pays for Ballenger's salary and benefits. The tuition and fees from the students enrolled in Ballenger's course pay for two special political forums each year at CMU. 

"This expert in American politics and Michigan government certainly helps strengthen our program," says Larry Sych, political science department chair. "Having an endowed chair in our department adds visibility and depth to our program, and it energizes our students." 

"Endowed chairs can be structured to best meet the needs of the department," Leto says. "Frequently an endowment helps provide a salary stipend, and probably just as important, it provides funds to support the faculty's activities, whether that is applied research, travel, other research materials, graduate assistant support, or other areas that support their work." 

The Griffin Endowed Chair is the only fully endowed chairperson position at CMU, and leaders of the New Vision of Excellence campaign hope to change that. The campaign goal anticipates raising $4 million to endow faculty positions and programs. 

"For a university of our size and significance, it's fairly unusual that we only have one fully funded endowed chair," Leto says. "Many institutions have much more in the way of endowed faculty support." 

He says endowed faculty positions help universities recruit and retain the best faculty, and they add to the prestige and reputation of the university. 

"Faculty endowments are one measure of an institution's commitment to people who have dedicated their lives to excellence in teaching, as well as excellence in research and significant expansion of knowledge in their field," says President Mike Rao. "Endowments provide extra resources to those people." 

He says it's important for CMU to recognize faculty members who do wonderful things for their students, their fields of expertise, and the university. 

"The bottom line is that we now have quite a few of those people, and we have the task of figuring out how to appropriately honor the people who have brought recognition to the university," Rao says. 

For Ballenger's part, he enjoys the endowed chair appointment that he began this fall and will hold for three years until CMU opens it for another political expert. 

He balances teaching, planning political forums, and serving as guest speaker to other classes and student organizations. At home in Lansing, Ballenger writes a biweekly political newsletter and hosts an hour-long weekly call-in radio talk show. He has degrees from Princeton and Harvard, he has served in the Michigan House of Representatives and Senate, and he served as deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare under President Gerald R. Ford. 

"My goal is that going out of the class at the end of the semester I have 20 political junkies - 20 people who are really fired up about politics and want to continue to maintain interest in what is going on," Ballenger says. "I hope when they get out of CMU they will never forget what they learned in this course and will always utilize it and build on it throughout their lives no matter what else they do."

Source: Centralight, Winter 2003

Centralight is published four times each year by Central Michigan University Office of Alumni Relations.