wfn.org | United Methodist college receives $1M grant

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

April 21, 1999 News media contact: Linda Green*(615)742-5470*Nashville,
Tenn.  10-31-71B{212}

By United Methodist News Service

A historically black college in Holly Springs, Miss., has received a $1
million grant to establish two faculty chairs in the departments of
education and humanities.

United Methodist-related Rust College received the money from the Lilly
Endowment-United Negro College Fund Historically Black Colleges and
Universities Program.

The money will support the college's endowment fund and technology program,
according to Rust President David Beckley. Two endowed faculty chairs will
be established, and each will receive $500,000. The college will use the
required  $250,000 match to complete its ongoing computer technology
program, Beckley said.

The college will receive $750,000 of the grant money immediately and the
remaining $250,000 when it raises an equal amount in matching funds from
private sources, he said. He expects to receive the remaining amount within
six months.

The grant "is a significant part of the plans for improvement at Rust,"
Beckley said in a press release. "The grant will strengthen the college and
will bring us closer to our strategic plan that called for our endowment to
reach $20 million by 2003. With the grant, we anticipate meeting this goal
over the next 12 months. Current endowment holding is above $18 million
today."

The grant program was created last year with $41.7 million in funding from
the Lilly Endowment, the second-largest grant in the endowment's 62-year
history. The endowment was an original contributor to the United Negro
College Fund, founded in 1944, and has given continuous support since then.

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