Inside Iowa State: Iowa State University

August 16, 2002

Donors invest in "People"

by Barbara Boose, ISU Foundation
Donors had given more than $22 million to Iowa State's "Investing in People" initiative as of July 31. The initiative, announced last October by President Gregory Geoffroy, is a two-year, $50 million effort to increase private gifts for undergraduate scholarships, graduate fellowships and faculty support.

"Alumni and friends of Iowa State who support the Investing in People campaign are helping Iowa State University achieve its goal of becoming the nation's leading land-grant university. Their gifts help the university recruit and retain the best and brightest faculty and students," Geoffroy said.

Contributions have exceeded $18 million for student support and $4 million for faculty support. The ISU Foundation administers the Investing in People initiative.

"We have been gratified by the way alumni and friends have responded," said Peg Armstrong-Gustafson, interim president and CEO of the foundation. "Their gifts directly benefit our students and enhance programs via our faculty, which supports Iowa State's land-grant mission of providing access and opportunity."

Investing in People donors include Kent Hopkins, an associate vice president at Noel-Levitz, Denver. Inspired by a fraternity brother who exemplified student leadership at ISU, Hopkins created the Tracy E. Lewis Leadership Award Scholarship for a first-year student who shows leadership.

Private gifts now support scholarships for 3,500 Iowa State students. In 2001-02, more than half of ISU undergraduates demonstrated financial need, with an average annual need of $8,899.

Graduate fellowships also provide important financial assistance to students and help Iowa State compete for the nation's top graduate students. The late Elva Acklam Stark established a graduate scholarship in memory of her husband, Arvil, who received a master's and Ph.D. in horticulture from ISU in the '30s. The Arvil L. and Elva Acklam Stark Horticulture Scholarship is awarded to graduate students conducting horticulture research.

Endowed faculty professorships, chairs and faculty fellowships allow Iowa State to retain and recruit top teacher-scholars. Iowa State has 29 endowed professorships and 33 endowed faculty chairs. A goal of the Investing in People initiative is to double the number of endowed faculty positions.

Frank Ross and his wife, Juliane, have supported the Roger Murphy Professorship in Accounting, named for one of Ross' professors. The position will be filled after the chair is fully funded.

"The high quality of professors at ISU helps provide high-quality employees for our company and our industry, and we want that to continue," said Ross, vice president and chief financial officer of Pioneer Hi-Bred International, and a 1984 ISU accounting graduate.