wfn.org | Grant to make Texas college Y2K ready

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

Oct. 25, 1999 News media contact: Linda Green·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.
10-31-71B{562}

By United Methodist News Service

A historically black United Methodist-related college has received a
financial boost from a philanthropic foundation to help the school's
computer systems become Y2K-compliant.

Wiley College in Marshall, Texas, has received $950,000 from the Lilly
Endowment/United Negro College Fund Historically Black Colleges and
Universities Program. The money will be used for systems upgrades and
millennium compliance related to the changeover of the school's computers to
the year 2000.

The grant also will be used to help the 126-year-old institution buy an
adjacent building and make the existing facilities handicapped-accessible.
The college immediately received 75 percent, or $712,500, of the money, and
it will receive the remaining $237,000 when it raises an equal amount in
matching funds from private sources.

"The grant from the Lilly Endowment Program is a significant part of the
plans for improvements at Wiley College," said school President Ronald L.
Swain. "The grant will strengthen the college and its mission to create a
student-centered community of learning and faith." The grant also will
provide needed infrastructure improvements to carry the college into the
21st century, he said.

The historically black colleges and universities program was created in 1998
with a $41.7 million grant to the United Negro College Fund from
Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment. This award was the second largest single
grant in the endowment's 62-year history. The foundation supports education,
religion and community development.

The grant is representative of the foundation's commitment to helping
historically black academic institutions address their most critical needs.

# # #
This story was adapted from a release by Wiley College's public relations
office.

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United Methodist News Service
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