Jan. 10, 2002

The Duke Endowment has awarded gifts totaling $13.9 million to Duke University for a number of university initiatives, including financial aid, faculty support, undergraduate science facilities and the university's genomics initiative.

One gift -- $3 million -- will endow need-based scholarships for Duke students from North and South Carolina in a challenge grant that seeks donors to give two-thirds of the total amount for a scholarship, with The Duke Endowment making up the rest. About 15 percent of Duke's undergraduates come from North Carolina, the highest percentage of any state, and 3 percent come from South Carolina.

The $3 million gift will support Duke's "need-blind" admissions policy, which means that students are admitted based on an assessment of their academic performance and their potential and ability to contribute to the undergraduate educational experience, without consideration of the financial status or ability of an applicant's family to pay for a college education. The university then commits to provide 100 percent of a student's demonstrated financial need -- based on a formula commonly used by colleges -- for all four years of the student's undergraduate education.

About 40 percent of Duke students receive some form of financial aid. The average grant package among need-based recipients is more than $16,000 each year.

Officials said The Duke Endowment grant is particularly significant in its support of priorities identified in Building on Excellence, the university's long-range academic plan, approved by Duke's Board of Trustees in February 2001.

"Over the years, the university has benefitted enormously from the support The Duke Endowment has given to enhance the excellence of our students, faculty and programs," said Duke President Nannerl O. Keohane. "We are most grateful that this year's grants focus directly on priorities and initiatives identified in Building on Excellence - financial aid to ensure Duke is accessible to bright students regardless of their financial situation, endowment support to enable us to recruit and retain the best faculty, and initiatives in science and research in areas like genomics in which Duke is making major investments.

"The Endowment's investment in these and other university priorities, including our neighborhood partnerships in Durham, are vital and most appreciated."

All totaled, The Duke Endowment's gifts for financial aid and scholarships amount to $5 million. That includes a $1.5 million challenge grant to provide financial aid for graduate and professional students, and $500,000 in permanent endowment for the Angier B. Duke Scholarship Program, Duke's prestigious national merit scholarship award for undergraduates.

In addition, The Duke Endowment awarded:

• $3 million in a challenge grant that will create six new endowed chairs at the Duke School of Law;
• $2.5 million for the soon-to-be-constructed Nasher Museum of Art, in honor of Duke Endowment Chairman Emeritus Mary D.B.T. Semans;
• $1 million for undergraduate science facilities;
• $1 million for Duke's new Center for Genome Ethics, Law and Policy, one of five centers in Duke's new $200 million Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy;
• $698,000 for the Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership Initiative;
• $500,000 to help Duke meet the costs of mounting the Campaign for Duke;
• $200,000 to endow Duke's University Archives, in honor of retiring University Archivist William E. King.

"These grants touch nearly every area of the university: undergraduates especially, but also the graduate and professional schools, which Mr. Duke knew were so important," said Elizabeth H. Locke, president of The Duke Endowment.

The Duke Endowment, based in Charlotte, was established in 1924 by industrialist, philanthropist and Duke University founder James B. Duke. Today, it is one of the nation's largest foundations. In 2000, The Duke Endowment awarded almost $100 million to agencies and institutions in North and South Carolina.

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