When the Board of Regents approved Connie Sung as the first Annmarie Hawkins Research Professor in Disability Justice on June 12, 2025, it was noteworthy on several levels.
For Sung, who joined the School of Social Work in January and is a rehabilitation counselor and researcher known for community-based work to empower individuals with disabilities, the appointment recognized decades of achievement.
For the Hawkins family, it ensured that Annmarie Hawkins’s long career as a disability justice advocate would continue to influence future generations through University of Michigan research.
Named professorships, a tradition at U-M for more than 100 years, play a critical role in nurturing research, perpetuating the values of their namesakes, and enabling the work done at the university to make a lasting difference.
“Annmarie Hawkins has been a true change agent for disability justice across four decades of service and impact,” said Neil Hawkins, Annmarie’s husband. “Her advocacy and service for people with disabilities has made a significant difference for thousands of people. This research professorship in her honor has real potential to extend her impact through the work of Dr. Sung and the University of Michigan.”
The Annmarie Hawkins Professorship is also distinctive in structure. Unlike most donor-funded professorships, it is not endowed. Instead, it is something called a term professorship, funded by expendable gifts that support the role for up to five years. At the end of the term, the professorship expires unless the donor renews or expands the commitment.
“While many of Michigan’s named professorships are endowed, term professorships are becoming a useful option,” said Conor Neville, director of campaign operations in the Office of University Development. “They allow donors to make an immediate impact without the restrictions of an endowed professorship or its $1 million minimum contribution.”
“We are grateful that the Hawkins family has decided to fund a term professorship at the School of Social Work in Annmarie’s honor,” said Beth Angell, dean of the School of Social Work. “All professorships, expendable or endowed, help us to recruit and retain top talent.”
A naming tradition at U-M
The tradition of named professorships began at U-M with a bequest that surprised the university more than a century ago.
In 1898, Elizabeth Bates, a physician from New York, left approximately $100,000 to the U-M Medical School. It was the largest bequest the university had ever received, and it came with one stipulation: that women continue to be admitted to the medical program on equal terms with men.
The result of that gift was the Bates Professorship of the Diseases of Women and Children, established in 1899. It was the university’s first endowed professorship and the nation’s first professorship in obstetrics and gynecology.
Since then, seven professors have held the Bates professorship. Today, the title is held by Dee Fenner, chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and professor of obstetrics and gynecology, and of urology in the Medical School.
An honor that goes by many names
Bates’s gift set the standard for endowed professorships at U-M. These are supported by large gifts whose investment income provides funding in perpetuity. Minimums vary by type: $1 million for a research professorship, $2.5 million for a faculty professorship, or $5 million for a deanship.
Today, there are approximately 750 endowed professorships at U-M, funded either entirely by donors or with a combination of donor gifts and university funds. More than half of these professorships are in the Medical School.
The Annmarie Hawkins Research Professorship, as mentioned, represents a newer option. Term professorships are not funded by endowments but by expendable gifts that provide the equivalent of an endowment’s annual payout over a set period. They are relatively uncommon at U-M but growing in use.
“We’re excited to be exploring this newer approach to funding professorships,” Angell said. “This model allows donors to make an immediate impact, while considering a longer-term endowed commitment. We hope that the outcome of a term professorship, in addition to transformative research, is that the impact is so significant donors are inspired to attach their name and legacy to this transformative work.”
Donors of endowed or term professorships are allowed to select the name of the professorship (typically themselves or a family member), but they do not choose who holds it. Appointment decisions are made through academic processes led by deans, the provost and the regents. This ensures that professorships reflect academic standards, not donor preferences.
U-M also has a long tradition of awarding unendowed collegiate professorships, or UCPs, out of the Provost’s Office. UCPs are typically funded by schools and colleges directly, not by donors.
“The unendowed collegiate professorship is a unit-funded honorific held by the Office of the Provost that may be bestowed upon active, tenure-track faculty to recognize and reward contributions to the institution and excellence in one’s field,” said Nancy Calvin-Naylor, assistant vice provost for academic and faculty affairs.
“These professorships are named for former, retired or deceased prominent U-M faculty who have made substantial scholarly contributions while at Michigan. Key purposes of a UCP include recognizing and rewarding the many contributions and achievements of U-M faculty.”
The first 25 UCPs were established by the Board of Regents in 1973 at the request of the then-dean of LSA. Today, there are approximately 250 active UCPs at U-M. They are typically five-year renewable appointments and carry stipends in the range of $3,000-$5,000 a year.
At one time, U-M also had a donor-funded “collegiate professorship,” which was the least expensive endowed option and was often used to honor retiring faculty. But to avoid confusion with the provost’s UCPs, these donor-funded roles have been reclassified as “legacy professorships,” Neville said. Today, they are relatively rare and require contributions from multiple donors.
What a named professorship provides
The benefits of an endowed or term professorship vary by unit. In some schools, the payout goes directly to the faculty member for research support or salary. In others, the money goes to salary support and a discretionary fund. And in still other instances, all funds are directed to the school’s discretionary account, with the title serving primarily as an honor.
What is consistent among named professorships is the prestige. From Elizabeth Bates’s insistence on equal access for women in medicine to Annmarie Hawkins’s legacy of disability justice, U-M’s professorships also reflect enduring commitments to equity and service.
Sung will be installed as the Annmarie Hawkins Research Professor in Disability Justice in a ceremony at the School of Social Work on Sept. 18. As Sung begins her five-year term, she echoes the values of equity and service.
“It is an incredible honor to carry forward Annmarie Hawkins’ legacy of advancing disability rights and inclusion,” Sung said.
“My passion is to create innovative, evidence-based interventions that truly empower marginalized communities, and this professorship gives me the vital support and opportunity to work hand-in-hand with community members, advocates, policymakers, and fellow researchers. Together, we are turning research into real, lasting change for those whose voices have too often been unheard.”
That, in many ways, is the story of named professorships at U-M. They are not just titles, but commitments to carry forward the values — and names — of those who believe the research and teaching done at the University of Michigan can help change lives.
