As the deferred gift's endowment matures, the Neag fund is used to increase the number and dollar amount of student scholarships and graduate assistantships, and to subsidize faculty research grants. It supports faculty and staff development activities, including the Neag Distinguished Lecture Series featuring nationally prominent scholars and education policymakers, and also is used as venture capital to initiate new outreach activities.
The most visible of the dividends are the three new endowed chairs and a chaired professorship. In 2000, a nationally prominent specialist in reading and Internet technology, Donald Leu, was hired for the John and Maria Neag Endowed Chair in Literacy and Technology. Two years later, Barry Sheckley, a professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and a highly-respected scholar who has devoted 25 years to understanding how adults learn best, was appointed Neag Professor of Adult Learning. In 2005, George Sugai, renowned for his work in special education and behavioral and emotional disorders, became the Neag Endowed Chair in Behavioral Disorders.
