Financial aid, faculty development and several other University programs received a major boost Thursday with the announcement of a series of gifts totaling $13.9 million from the Duke Endowment, already one of the school's most generous donors. In particular, the gifts will provide financial assistance for initiatives included in the University's long-range academic plan, Building on Excellence.
A total of $5 million will be given to support financial aid, including $3 million as a challenge grant to help endow need-based scholarships for students from North and South Carolina. The grant seeks donors to eventually triple the $3 million with matching gifts from other donors. About 15 percent of Duke undergraduates are from North Carolina, with about 3 percent from South Carolina.
A similar $1.5 million grant will help support financial aid for graduate and professional students, and $500,000 will help permanently endow the Angier B. Duke Scholarship Program.
"Financial aid has been a priority of the Endowment for a while, and this is in keeping with the goal of making the benefits of private higher education as accessible as possible," said David Roberson, director of communications at the Duke Endowment.
The Duke Endowment, based in Charlotte, was founded in 1924 by James B. Duke and is unaffiliated with the University. Nevertheless, it is one of the University's largest donors, paying for the original construction of the campus and giving almost $700 million to the school since its inception.
"Over the years, the University has benefited enormously from the support the Duke Endowment has given to enhance the excellence of our students, faculty and programs," President Nan Keohane said in a statement. "We are most grateful that this year's grants focus directly on priorities and initiatives identified in Building on Excellence."
The School of Law will receive a $3 million grant to help endow six new chairs in areas targeted by the school's strategic plan. The funds put the school just over its original $50 million campaign goal; its current goal is to raise $55 million by the end of 2003.
"Our top priority in this campaign has been getting support for faculty development, so this is a very significant gift for advancing our strategic priorities," said Katharine Bartlett, dean of the law school.
The $3 million will cover a third of the cost of endowing the six chairs, which, when fully funded, will be used to maintain current professors and recruit new ones in areas such as intellectual property, constitutional, international and business law.
The remainder of the $13.9 million gift will be spread among a variety of University initiatives, although the specific uses for some of the money will not be determined until later this spring. The awards include:
$2.5 million, originally announced in October, for the planned Nasher Museum of Art in honor of Duke Endowment chair emeritus Mary D.B.T. Semans;
$1 million for undergraduate science facilities;
*E$1 million for the Center for Genome Ethics, Law and Policy, one of five components of the $200 million Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy;
*E$698,000 for the Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership Initiative;
*E$500,000 to help run The Campaign for Duke; and
*E$200,000 to endow the University Archives in honor of retiring archivist William King.
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