We would like to applaud the UniversityâÄôs efforts in the creation of the Imagine Fund, to provide research funding for faculty in the arts, humanities and design. Too often, amid the strategic positioning rhetoric, we find these departments shunted to the side in favor of flashier, sexier research from the Academic Health Center and Institute of Technology. The Imagine Fund, announced last week, allows for 250 tenured professors each year to have their research supported financially âÄî support which isnâÄôt always available through private sources, as with basic science and medical research. The Imagine Fund grants $3,000 per award and represents a huge step for the University in showing its appreciation for the hardworking faculty in the arts, humanities and design schools. The majority of students are probably unaware that for the first six years of being a professor, he or she is in a âÄúprobationary periodâÄù working toward tenure âÄî which is, as one professor explained it, âÄúa job for life, or a year to clean out your desk.âÄù Quality and quantity of research plays a huge role in whether or not a professor is granted tenure. While the Imagine Fund is a great effort on the part of the University, there is still much to be done to support the junior faculty in these departments. Faculty in their probationary period have, in effect, much more to prove with their research, which is often balanced with bulky course loads and volunteer or community work. Junior faculty in the aforementioned departments often have fewer resources at their disposal and may struggle to finance their work. As the University strives for greatness as a public research university, it must value study across all disciplines. Salary discrepancies exist across departments âÄî in some cases, differences of hundreds of thousands of dollars among tenured professors. It is important for the University to continue its support of the arts, humanities and social sciences.