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Volume
1, No. 1
Fall 2000
From
the Director
$2
Million Gift for Honors College
Major
Giving, Planned Giving
Annual
Giving
Corporate
and Foundation Relations
Dates
to Remember
Announcements
About
the MTSU Foundation
Development
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From
the Director
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First,
just let me say that I'm so pleased to be here. It has been a great
pleasure getting to know the MTSU community over the last few months.
To all of you who are helping me learn the ropes, thank you. In particular,
I want to thank Joanne Yoder, who did a wonderful job as interim director
and eased my transition greatly. |
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David
Bass
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I continue to be
impressed by the talented staff we have on board here in Development.
It's exciting to be building on the success of the New Century/New Visions
campaign, and I look forward to our continuing that momentum. While it
is true that we will be losing one of our greatest assets when President
James Walker leaves to take the helm at Southern Illinois University,
I have no doubt that his successor will help us continue to flourish.
In the months ahead, we will be working hard to raise money toward matching
the $2 million challenge grant for a new Honors College building, which
is described in this newsletter, and the $250,000 challenge grant for
the John T. Bragg, Sr., Scholarship Fund, which provides full-tuition
awards for young Tennesseans who might not otherwise have the opportunity
to attend college. We are thrilled by the generosity of Paul and Lee Martin
for the Honors College challenge and Clayton McWhorter for the John Bragg
challenge. These are tremendous opportunities for the University.
Commitment
to Excellence: $2 Million Gift for Honors College
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John
Paul Montgomery, dean of MTSU's Honors
College,
recently received some very exciting news. Four donors have made a
combined gift of $2 million to the College. |
The gift comes from
Paul Martin, Jr. '75, the first graduate of the Honors Program; his wife,
Phyllis Murray Martin '75; his brother, Lee Martin; and Lee's wife, Carla
Martin. They have issued a challenge for MTSU to raise $2 million in matching
funds by December 2001. The money will be used to build a new facility
for the Honors College, which has outgrown the space it now occupies in
a Peck Hall office suite.
Through their challenge grant, the Martin brothers want to memorialize
their late father, Paul W. Martin. "My father valued education,"
says Paul Martin, Jr. Lee Martin remembers his father's 39 years of service
to the Murfreesboro community. An engineer, he worked at the Tennessee
Valley Authority's Murfreesboro office. Lee Martin explains, "We
wanted to honor him in a special way."
The brothers grew up in Murfreesboro and attended MTSU's Campus School-"a
wonderful school," Lee Martin remarks. The Martins are excited about
being able to give back to a community and a university that played a
central part in their childhood.
Their gift is the second largest in MTSU's history. It will have a marked
impact on the Honors College, which began as the Honors Program in 1973
and has been growing steadily since its inception. In 1998, when the program
changed to the College of University Honors, it became the first of its
kind at a Tennessee public university.
To graduate from the College, a student must take 36 hours of Honors courses
and write a thesis. The requirements consist of 18 hours of core classes
and 18 hours of upper-division classes, including six hours of interdisciplinary
courses and a tutorial that allows the student to work one-on-one with
a faculty member to do the necessary research for the thesis.
The experience of doing focused research and writing, Montgomery emphasizes,
gives Honors graduates a competitive edge when they move into the job
market or into graduate work. Montgomery says that Honors students understand
the thesis as "the single most important academic event to prepare
them for the rigors . . . of advanced study."
Along with the successes of the Honors College have come some difficulties.
Most obviously, the College has outgrown the limited office space it now
has. Dealing with this lack of space has become "an incredible challenge,"
says Montgomery, who shares his own office with another staff member.
Not only will the new building be an answer to the problem of office and
classroom space, it will also function as an important gathering place
for Honors students-a home base for this close-knit community. It will
give the Honors College a more impressive presence on campus and serve
as a great way to introduce prospective students and their families to
the Honors College.
Calling the development
of the Honors Program into a College "long overdue," Paul Martin,
Jr., points out how vital the project is to the University. Montgomery
agrees that this project demonstrates the University's "commitment
to excellence."
Lee Martin says he hopes the challenge grant will "act as a catalyst
to spur even more growth in the Honors College." He emphasizes that
MTSU has become a major university and that development must play a key
role. "We have to encourage excellence, whether it's at state-supported
schools or private schools," he maintains.
Montgomery is thrilled about the Martins' challenge grant. "I'm overwhelmed
by their incredible generosity," he says. He stresses that raising
the matching funds is a demanding assignment. "I think during these
particularly stressful fiscal times with the state budget it's going to
be a challenge for us. It's going to take all of us working together to
make this happen."
By rising to the
challenge, MTSU will benefit immeasurably. An investment in the Honors
College insures that MTSU can continue recruiting the most talented students,
who represent a valuable asset for the campus as a whole. Montgomery says
that the success of the Honors College and the plan for the new building
is "the end result of over a quarter of a century of hard work to
bring these excellent students to MTSU, so after all, everyone can enjoy
them." The goal of education, Paul Martin, Jr., says, is "to
help us improve ourselves." In the end, he continues, "we're
all beneficiaries of those ideals."
Major
Giving/Planned Giving
Joanne
Yoder plans to return from maternity leave in October, when she will continue
assisting individuals who wish to support MTSU through planned giving.
Planned gifts through charitable gifts, trusts, bequests, and gift annuities
are just some of the ways for individuals to make a commitment to MTSU
while minimizing their tax liability. Booklets on "How to Design
a Trust for Yourself," "How to Plan for Your Heirs," and
"The Impact of Debt on Charitable Planning" are available by
contacting the Development Office by email
or calling 898-2502.
Annual
Giving
The
MTSU Annual Fund campaign for 2000-2001 has been launched by Kippy
Todd.
With the theme "Leadership in Annual Giving," the campaign will
emphasize early participation in the Annual Fund program. Alumni who give
$25 or more before December 31, 2000, will receive a checkbook cover featuring
the slogan of the campaign and the dates July 1-September 30, which is
the first quarter of our fiscal year. We hope to call attention to the
importance of giving early, which allows departments to use the funds
provided by our alumni in the current academic year.
Corporate
and Foundation Relations
We
are pleased to welcome Robyn Kilpatrick as the new director of corporate
and foundation relations. A 1992 graduate of Vanderbilt University, Robyn
worked in Alumni and Development at Vanderbilt for seven years, most recently
as acting director of corporate and foundation relations. Robyn will be
working with grants writers Samantha Cantrell, M.A. '93, and Antoinette
van Zelm to meet the Honors College and Bragg Scholarship challenge grants.
They are also working on proposals in support of the Center
for the Study and Treatment of Dyslexia,
Project HELP, and the VOICES summer art program, among other projects.
Dates
to Remember
September
30 - President's Ball,
The Country Club at Stones River,
Murfreesboro, 7 p.m.
October
13 - Homecoming Golf Tournament, Indian Hills Golf Club, 8 a.m.
Pigskin Pre-Game, Foundation Reception House, 7 p.m.
October
14 - Homecoming, "Rock-'n-Roll With Us"
Reunions: '70s Decade; Former Distinguished Alumni; Former Cheerleaders;
Former Homecoming Queens
Cookout and Activities, Greenland Drive Picnic Pavilion, 3 - 5:30 p.m.
Football Game, MTSU vs. Louisiana-Monroe, Floyd Stadium, 6 p.m.
November
11 - Foundation Board Meeting, Alumni Center, 9:30 a.m.
Announcements
Two
staff members have new baby boys. Antoinette van Zelm and Lynn
Nelson welcomed Nathan Lynn on March 30, while Joanne
and Bill Yoder celebrated the arrival of Cooper Wilson on
July 14. We send our best wishes to the newborns and their happy parents.
Dot Harrison, B.A. '62, M.A. '72, director of development communications
and marketing, has recently received three prestigious awards: an international
award from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education for
the program she began at MTSU for retired faculty members, the Otis Floyd
Award from the Tennessee College Public Relations Association for her
many achievements at MTSU, and MTSU's first Outstanding Public Service
Award for Staff.
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