Thanks to a $1 million endowment from a University of Idaho alumnus and former student body vice president, students interested in learning about East Asian politics and economics will have a new course of study beginning fall 2022.
The endowment will yield its first payment in July, according to a press release from the university on Friday.
The College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences plans to interview candidates for the tenure-track assistant professorship, called the Thomas Slayton Endowed Professorship for East Asian Politics.
“This is an amazing moment for the Department of Politics and Philosophy,” Dean of CLASS Sean Quinlan said. “Political science is an important and growing program in our college, and it has a long and venerable tradition.”
Slayton attended UI as an undergraduate over 50 years ago, where he was a member of the staff council. Since then, Slayton became an expert in East Asian economics and went on to become the former publisher and owner of the Rice Trader trade publication and The Rice Report, former fellow for the Center for Global Development and a former consultant to the World Bank, the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization.
“This endowment is created to honor my affiliation with the university and to recognize the impact of higher education in my life,” Slayton said.
Slayton grew up in Blackfoot and has two grown children with his wife, Cheryl, who grew up in North Idaho.
Angela Palermo can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @apalermotweets.