Former trustee gives $500,000 to Paul Smith's College - 2008-02-11

William B. Hale's gift establishes faculty development fund

CONTACT: Kenneth Aaron, director of communications, (518) 327-6297

PAUL SMITHS - A longtime trustee of Paul Smith's College has established a $500,000 fund to help faculty members pursue further education.

William B. Hale, who was on the college's board of trustees from 1990-2004 and became an emeritus member of the board in 2005, said he wanted to help the college build upon its successes as a four-year school by helping the people who teach its students.

"If and when people scrutinize a college carefully, one of the benchmarks they look at ­ certainly academics do ­ is the percentage of faculty who have terminal degrees or are fully certified in their professions," Hale said. "And I think it would be helpful if we had a larger percentage of the faculty with terminal or additional degrees."

The Hale Faculty Development Fund will help faculty pursue terminal degrees, such as doctorates, as well as additional credentials.

John Mills, the president of Paul Smith's College, said Hale's gift demonstrated great insight into the college's institutional needs.

"Bill Hale's generosity has given a great boost to an area that we have long wanted to build upon," Mills said. "While we have committed institutional funds to support faculty development, this gift will make it attainable for many more of our professors and instructors. We've long been commited to making education accessible for our students; the importance of ensuring that our faculty are able to continue their educations, though, can't be understated."

Faculty members said the gift would be a boon.

"This generous gift will provide even greater opportunities for our faculty to acquire new knowledge, degrees and certifications which will directly benefit our students, and make a Paul Smith's College education even more valuable," said Phillip Taylor, dean of the college's Division of Science, Liberal Arts and Business. "In today's highly competitive higher education environment, this gift will help us attract and retain the best students possible, by supporting continued excellence in our current faculty and by attracting high quality new faculty as well."

Hale, an alumnus of Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., was an executive with Lawyers Cooperative Publishing Co. before retiring. He has had close ties to the Adirondacks since 1934, when a doctor urged his parents to take him here in order to relieve his asthma and hay fever.

Paul Smith's College is the only four-year institution of higher education in the Adirondack Park. The school, on the shores of Lower St. Regis Lake, encompasses 14,200 acres of forests, streams, lakes and mountains that are available for students to explore and study. The College offers both bachelor¹s and associate degree programs which focus on experiential learning in a variety of majors including biology; fish and wildlife sciences; natural resources; environmental science; forestry; surveying; recreation, adventure travel and ecotourism; hospitality, resort and culinary management; liberal arts; and business.