A tiny liberal arts school in rural Kentucky that hosted vice presidential debates in 2000 and 2012 announced a $250 million donation Tuesday, one of the largest single gifts in higher education history.
The all-stock donation to Centre College from the A. Eugene Brockman Charitable Trust ranks among the 20 biggest gifts ever to a U.S. college or university, according to a list maintained by the Chronicle of Higher Education. ...
Centre will use the money to set up scholarships for students majoring in science, economics and computer science. ...
Starting in fall 2014, 40 new Brockman Scholarships will be funded each year for students majoring in the natural and computational sciences and economics, with a total of 160 students receiving the full-ride scholarships plus more benefits by 2017, the school said. The merit-based scholarships will cover tuition, room and board, and fees — which will cost $45,100 for the coming school year — as well as money to support study abroad, summer research and internships. ...
Brockman formed the charitable trust in 1981. His son, Robert T. “Bob” Brockman, is a Centre graduate and a former chairman of the school’s board of trustees. ...
The elder Brockman “saw firsthand the tremendous impact that Centre had on his son ... whose own drive and ambition were empowered by his experience as a Centre student,” said Evatt Tamine, trustee of the Brockman Trust.
The leafy campus in Danville, a picturesque central Kentucky town of about 16,000, has found itself on the nation’s political center stage twice, when it hosted vice presidential debates in 2000 pitting Dick Cheney and Joe Lieberman and again in 2012 when Joe Biden and Paul Ryan squared off.
Centre expects enrollment of about 1,370 students for the fall semester. The school ranked 52nd nationally among liberal arts colleges in last year’s ratings from U.S. News & World Report, but it ranked fifth in best undergraduate teaching and alumni giving.
Some comments:
- I majored in economics at Centre College. I'm quite sure I would not have been a "Brockman Scholar." At the time, the economics major was one of the easiest with more of a political economy bent. Many of the knuckleheads majored in it. My first semester of graduate school was a shock.
- $250m is a lot of stock. Suppose it earns an average of 3.5% each year. That will generate $8.75m and support 160 students with almost $10k per student for study abroad and et cetera (if I was economics faculty I would definitely try do some faculty-student research that requires grant money for a survey :)
- The elder Brockman also saw firsthand "... that preparation for leadership and service in a rapidly changing world best takes place with the firm intellectual, moral, and social grounding that young people receive especially well at Centre." I received some serious grounding in front of the student higher judiciary! Thanks Dean Mount!
- Ranking 52nd nationally requires a "but" afterwards? As if 52nd is kinda sorry?
