Make a Gift

Thank you for your interest in supporting the Rhetoric Department's endeavors! You can make a gift to any of our Rhetoric Department funds by clicking here

Our two main funds are the Cleo Martin Teaching Excellence Fund and the Rhetoric Department Gift Fund

The Cleo Martin Teaching Excellence Fund is named for, and supports the goals of, one of our pioneering teachers and scholars, Cleo Martin, who was instrumental in founding the Reading Center and the Writing Center as well as being a wonderful teacher. The fund honoring her enduring legacy is accordingly used for rewarding or supporting teaching excellence (including our Professional Development Program, developing new courses, occasionally paying for faculty to attend pedagogical conferences, and much more, including awarding annual prizes for our outstanding graduate instructors).  The fund supports and rewards both proven excellence in teaching and innovation in pedagogy as the educational world develops and unfolds.

The Rhetoric Department Gift Fund offers general Department support and promotion of our achievement of excellence. In addition to inspiring and rewarding undergraduate achievement in Rhetoric (Speaking, Writing, Multimodal composition), the fund is used to support faculty initiatives and collaborative endeavors with other units on campus. The recent creation of the Department’s skills-based Minor in Rhetoric and Persuasion has been advertised and supported using this fund and our consideration of future plans and applications of Rhetoric across the curriculum [with Business, Nursing, Health, Sports, Law, STEM, for example] also receive support.

Funds in this account are also used to support the Doug Trank Memorial Award (for short) that is awarded annually to the instructor who combines key characteristics of our late former Department Chair, former President of Central States Communication Association, and former President of the Iowa Communication Association.  Doug was well known for his dedication to teaching and for his human warmth, kindness, sense of humor and skill as a mentor.  The award is therefore named the Doug Trank Memorial Award for Excellence in Teaching and Mentoring and although teaching excellence is rewarded in other ways in the Department and the UI, the combination of teaching and care for students is the essential hallmark of both the nominees and the winners of this award. 

The Department also has a Foundation account that is specific in their intention to support the Writing Center.