Responding to the Commonwealth's financial crisis, two University alumni groups offered a combined gift of $300,000 that will aim to safeguard undergraduate courses in the College.
Representatives from the Alumni Association and the College Foundation each presented checks of $150,000 to University President John T. Casteen III on Saturday. The funds will be used to maintain small class sizes and to ensure that a full range of courses will be offered.
The severity of recent budget cuts have the potential to restrict course offerings because of the limitations the cuts have imposed on hiring new faculty to teach those classes, College Dean Edward L. Ayers said.
Last semester, Ayers placed a hiring freeze of new faculty on the College in response to the cuts.
He described the gift as "emergency money" that would be used to hire replacement faculty to ensure that all classes in every College department would be offered.
Ayers said the benefits of the funds will be felt by many.
"This gift allows us to help both graduate and undergraduate students by providing the means for our best graduate students to teach classes that our undergraduates need," he said.
The new funds will not be aimed at any specific department in the College.
Casteen describes the donation as "both timely and very important" because it "acknowledges specific needs that the state cannot meet."
The donation comes in response to a challenge issued by the Alumni Association to the College Foundation Board of Trustees to help relieve the pressure of the University's cut in state funding.
"The specific challenge from the Alumni Association was to raise money for undergraduate classes that would otherwise be cut," College Director of Communications Ken Kipps said.
The Alumni Association offered to match the donations of the College Foundation Board of Trustees up to $150,000.
Kipps noted the significance of the contribution.
"The exciting thing about this gift is that it is two alumni organizations supporting the College," he said.
Ayers acknowledges the generosity of the University alumni.
"The University community should take heart that our alumni are paying attention to our needs and are stepping up to help out," he said.
The Alumni Association is an independent organization of University graduates that supports alumni services and scholarship programs at the University.
The College Foundation is a non-profit foundation established by graduates of the College that raises money for the undergraduate academic program.
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