The Walton family of Bentonville has given $300 million to the University of Arkansas’ Fayetteville campus to endow a new honors college and the graduate school.
“This is one of the five largest gifts to an American university ever, public or private,” John White, chancellor of the University of Arkansas’ Fayetteville campus, told a crowd of about 500 gathered in the Arkansas Union this morning. “This unprecedented generosity from the Walton family will transform the University of Arkansas for our students and faculty and in the process position us to serve as a powerful engine of economic development and cultural change for the entire state. What the Walton family has done today will improve life in Arkansas for generations to come, and we are grateful beyond words.”
White noted that none of the Walton family attended the announcement.
“In the end, they decided not to be here,” White said, “and the reason is this: On this special day, on this special day, they wanted all the attention to be focused on the University of Arkansas.”
“Well, this changes everything,” said David Gearhart, UA vice chancellor for university advancement, who has been spearheading the campus’ Campaign for the Twenty-First Century. “For one thing, we have just gone $100 million over our goal. We’re now, as I counted up, at $607 million.”
Gearhart said the Walton gift is a “catalyst” that hinges on the UA matching that amount through its current fund-raising campaign.
White said $200 million will be used to establish and endow a new, university-wide undergraduate honors college, and $100 million will be used to endow the graduate school. Of the $200 million for the honors college, $29 million will go to Mullins Library. White said $5 million will be used for immediate library acquisitions, and the remaining $24 million will be used to establish an endowment for future acquisitions.
“Simply put, Arkansas cannot compete in today’s global economy without a better educated citizenry,” White said.
“This gift will allow the University of Arkansas to realize its vision as a nationally competitive, student-centered research university serving Arkansas and the world,” he said. “Our goal is to build a top 50 public research university to help lift our state, and this gift will do two extremely important things to propel us in that direction.
“First, it will allow the university to recruit highly talented undergraduate and graduate students and significantly greater numbers of them. This is essential because Arkansas ranks next to last among the 50 states and the District of Columbia in the percentage of the adult population with bachelor’s and advanced degrees. Our state cannot compete in a global economy without a better-educated citizenry.
“Second, through the recruitment of new faculty and new graduate students, we will be able to build significantly stronger research programs in critical areas …”
The gift is the largest ever made to a U.S. public university. It is twice the size of what was announced on March 2 as the largest gift to a single public university — an estate gift estimated to be worth $150 million to the University of Texas at Austin. And it is larger than the gift of $250 million in stock to the University of Colorado system (which encompasses four campuses) from William T. and Claudia Coleman in 2001.
The gift also ranks as the fifth largest ever made to an American university, whether public or private, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education. The first four include a $600 million gift to California Institute of Technology made by Gordon and Betty Moore and their foundation in 2001; a $400 million gift to Stanford University by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation in 2001; a $360 million gift to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute from an anonymous donor in 2001; and a $350 million gift over 20 years to Massachusetts Institute of Technology from Patrick J. and Lore Harp McGovern in 2000. A $300 million gift of stock to Vanderbilt University from Ingram Charitable Foundation in 1998 ties for fifth with the Walton donation.
The Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation was founded to support specific charities in the state of Arkansas. It was established by the family of the late Sam M. Walton, who founded Wal-Mart Stores Inc., now the world’s largest corporation.
In October 1998, the Walton Family Foundation gave $50 million to the UA’s business college, which was later renamed the Sam M. Walton College of Business. At the time, the gift was the largest ever made to an American business school.
Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee praised the Walton Foundation gift as “an act of historic proportions that will lift the entire state. There’s no question that a nationally competitive public research university and a strong higher education infrastructure are absolutely critical to economic and social progress in Arkansas.”
Rob Walton, chairman of the board of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and co-chair of the university’s Campaign for the Twenty-First Century, said, “The investment we are making demonstrates our confidence in the University of Arkansas and its potential for leadership in the global academic community. It is also an expression of our commitment to building a brighter future for the state and the nearly 3 million men, women and children who call Arkansas home.
“We want to see Arkansas in position to compete economically, to improve the standard of living for everyone and to develop a vibrant social and cultural life as well. One of the keys for that to happen is to build a world-class public research university, which the University of Arkansas is rapidly becoming.
“This gift also is an expression of confidence in the leadership of Chancellor John White. He has proven himself as a visionary leader of exceptional quality who gets results. The University of Arkansas has made impressive progress on many fronts since Chancellor White came here nearly five years ago, but we felt a substantial investment was needed to allow the university to make the quantum leap so that the vision he has inspired for the university and our state can be realized,” Walton said.
“Finally, we have been impressed with the rapid improvements at the Sam M. Walton College of Business after our $50 million investment three and a half years ago,” Walton added. “Under the leadership of Dean Doyle Williams, the college has made substantial gains in research productivity; outreach to business and industry; multicultural diversity among faculty, students and staff; new facilities and technologies; student enrollment; and academic reputation. We are confident the gift made today will permit similar gains across the larger university.”
Aside from his responsibilities with Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Walton, a 1966 alumnus of the UA and a 1969 law alumnus of Columbia University, is one of four co-chairs of the university’s Campaign for the Twenty-First Century.
The other co-chairs are Tommy Boyer, owner and CEO of Micro Images in Amarillo, Texas, who currently presides over the Campaign; Jim Walton, chairman and CEO of Arvest Bank Group of Bentonville, who will preside from July 1, 2002, to June 30, 2003; and Frank Broyles, UA men’s athletics director, who will preside from July 1, 2003, to June 30, 2004. Johnelle Hunt, corporate secretary of J.B. Hunt Transport Inc. of Lowell, is campaign treasurer.
Jim Walton, a 1971 UA alumnus, said he was confident the $300 million gift will be a wise investment in the state’s future.
“Our family feels strongly that the university can be an economic engine for the state,” he said. “By giving the university the means to help drive the economy and develop new opportunities for the people of Arkansas, we are optimistic that our gift will lift the entire state so that it can thrive and not merely survive in the 21st century.”
Started in 1998, the Campaign for the Twenty-First Century is a six-year effort to raise $500 million in private gift support by June 30, 2004. As of March 31, the Campaign had raised $307 million in gifts and pledges.
“With the Walton Family gift, we have gone more than $100 million over our original $500 million goal — 27 months ahead of schedule,” Gearhart said. “Obviously, this changes everything. Working with Chairman Boyer and the other campaign leaders, we will be in discussions over the next week to determine a new goal for the campaign while most likely extending its life for another year.”
If the UA matches the Walton gift with its own fund-raising “we could wind up with the largest fund-raising campaign in the history of the 12 universities in the Southeastern Conference,” Gearhart said.
“The largest to date is the campaign completed by the University of Florida in 2000, which ultimately raised $850.4 million,” he said. “The second largest is that of the University of Kentucky, currently in a $600 million campaign which is scheduled to end in 2003.”
Plans for the new honors college call for it to grow to about 2,000 students over the next few years, building on the more than 1,100 currently enrolled students who hold at least one of the four highest merit scholarships the university offers for students of exceptional academic ability: Chancellor’s Scholarships, Sturgis Fellowships, Bodenhamer Fellowships and the new Boyer Fellowships.
The honors college is designed to attract high-achieving Arkansas natives who are lured out of state by colleges and universities with attractive scholarship programs. It also is designed to attract talented out-of-state students. Regardless of whence they came, their matriculation at the UA greatly increases the likelihood that they will live in Arkansas after graduation. Their presence will enlarge the talented leadership corps in science, technology, education, business and the creative fields needed to move the state forward.
Students qualified to enter the honors college also will be enrolled in one of six “home” undergraduate schools or colleges of the university: the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences; the School of Architecture; the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences; the Sam M. Walton College of Business; the College of Education and Health Professions; or the College of Engineering.
White will recommend to B. Alan Sugg, president of the UA system, and the board of trustees approval of the creation of the honors college at the next regularly scheduled meeting on June 7.
Then, final plans for the honors college will be approved by a board of governors consisting of the chancellor, the provost (chief academic officer), the dean of the new honors college, the vice chancellor for university advancement, the vice chancellor for student affairs and representatives of the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation. In addition to the board of governors, the dean of the honors college will work closely with the other academic deans of the university.
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