Funded by the Avenali Endowment, the Departmental Residencies program brought to campus distinguished scholars, writers, journalists, or others persons with whom faculty and students might not otherwise have had direct or sustained contact. Most residencies were for one month. Resident fellows contributed to the intellectual life of the humanities at Berkeley through a series of concrete activities involving students as well as faculty. The Townsend Center continues to fund resident fellows as part of the Avenali Chair in the Humanities, hosted directly by the Center.