Endowment Association helps build KU
ENDOWMENT ASSOCIATION
By GENELLE RICHARDS
Kansas Staff Writer
"As of this month, the Endowment Association at University of Kansas is worth $30 million and is the largest private corporation in the state of Kansas," said Holly Thomson, administrative assistant. "In addition, since 1948, $19 million worth of property and land has been deeded over to the state."
The KU Endowment Association is the oldest organization of its kind in the United States. Its charter was first filed in October of 1891. The Association is governed by a board of 60 trustees. Many of the board members were presidents of the Alumni Association and recipients of the KU distinguished service citation, Miss Thomson said.
GENERAL POLICIES are established by an executive committee and investments are directed by a finance committee of five trustees. The association is fully tax exempt and gifts qualify for 30 per cent deductibility under Federal tax laws, Miss Thomson said.
Support is sought for scholarships, student loan funds, museum collections, special library acquisitions, research, lectureships, special buildings and other facilities which can not be created by state appropriations, according to the Endowment Association.
The Association has the responsibility of encouraging, receiving and administering donated funds for the benefit of KU, its students and staff. Contributions to the Greater University Fund and the Program for Progress are administered by the Association. Many large gifts are made through wills and life
income funds are also administered, official said.
2 KANSAN Dec.16 1969
IN A BOOKLET prepared by the Voluntary Support Committee of the National Association of Land-Grant Colleges, KU was cited as an example of the effect of private gifts on colleges and universities.
Irvin Youngberg, executive secretary of the Association, said in a booklet: "Had the University of Kansas not received private support in the years past from alumni, friends, foundations and corporations—many with matching grant programs—our present campus of nearly 800 acres would be less than 100 acres in size, our physical plant would consist of 35 fewer buildings than we now have; we would not have one of the finest museums of art in the Midwest; we could have no loan and scholarship program for worthy, needy students; we would have many thousand fewer volumes in our library..."
"Thousands of individuals have given their money in belief of higher education to help young people of Kansas," Miss Thomson said. "The important thing to the Association is that everything retains the memory of the individual in whose kindness it is given. Every gift whether $5 or $1 million is acknowledged with equal gratitude."
THE MEMBERS of the association also feel that everything is eventually for the benefit of the student, she said.
Through the Association last year, $629,000 was loaned to 3,149 students from the KU loan funds alone. One of these, the National Defense Student Loan Fund, has a nominal interest rate of 3 per cent that does not begin until one year after graduation. The debt may be cancelled up to 50 per cent if the student becomes a teacher.
cent and the normal repayment period in three years beginning after graduation or withdrawal from college.
The United Student Aid Fund loans money through students' local bank. The interest is 6 per
LAST YEAR, 1,700 scholarships totaling $700,000 were awarded. The scholarship program at KU began nearly 70 years ago with one of its purposes that of providing the academically qualified but economically deprived student the difference between what he would earn and what his education would cost.
Although the Endowment Association was chartered in 1891, not until 1929 were the first scholarship funds placed in their trust.
The first major gift to the Association was the establishment of the Solon E. Summerfield Scholarships. The purpose of this scholarship program was to "maintain a series of scholarships at KU, to be awarded on the basis of merit to entering freshman men from Kansas high schools, to be retained by them during the four years of the college course, income from the fund provided to be distributed among the scholars according to their individual needs..."
SINCE THESE awards are based on merit, the amount of money given each scholar varies from a small honorarium paid once to complete support for four years.
The Summerfield Foundation, in accordance with Summerfield's will, gives the first $20,000 of its annual income to support the scholarships at KU; while a portion of the remaining income goes to the Endowment Association in behalf of KU.
After 40 years, 500 Kansas men have graduated from KU with the distinction of being a Summerfield scholar.
BECAUSE OF THE success of the Summerfield program, a companion program for women, the Elizabeth M. Watkins Scholarships, was established in 1953. The selection process and methods of giving financial aid are identical to Summerfield Scholarship selection. Designations as a Watkins scholar is the highest academic award a young woman can receive at KU.
In addition to the scholarship program, in 1926 Mrs. Elizabeth M. Watkins gave KU a fully equipped scholarship hall, Miller Scholarship Hall in 1937 and Watkins Hospital in 1931.
Many of the residence halls and scholarship halls on the KU campus have been established by funds which first go to the Endowment Association.
Responsible for the beginning of the dormitory program at KU were Joseph R. Pearson and his wife. From Corsicana, Texas, he was not a graduate of KU, while his wife was. They provided the "seed" money for the building of Joseph R. Pearson and Gertrude Sellards Pearson Residence Halls, and they were completely responsible for the development of Pearson, Grace Pearson and Sellards scholarship halls.
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