Share
The Duke Endowment on Thursday presented Johnson C. Smith University with $5.7million, thought to be the largest single gift in the school's 142-year history.
The announcement, made by Duke Endowment board member Neil Williams during a luncheon on campus, was met with gasps from the crowd and then a standing ovation.
"I don't think there has been a time when we trustees have been more excited about this university than we are now," said Williams, chairman of the Foundation's education committee.
Ronald Carter, the university's president, said the gift will be used to develop two new ventures - the Center for Applied Leadership and Community Development, and the Metropolitan College. Some of the gift also will be used on scholarships and other financial aid, to help Carter achieve his goal of tightening admission standards.
"Smith was founded to be the Princeton of the South," Carter said. "This will help us become more selective."
The announcement of the gift was made during the school's Leadership Lecture, where Family Dollar Stores CEO Howard Levine was guest speaker.
Johnson C. Smith is among four Carolinas institutions that are longtime beneficiaries of the Duke Endowment, started in 1924 by business leader and philanthropist James B. Duke. The others are Davidson, Duke and Furman.
Smith, a historically black university on Beatties Ford Road in northwest Charlotte, has about 1,500 fulltime students. It was founded in 1867 as Biddle Institute and renamed in 1923 for the husband of a Pittsburgh woman who donated money for several buildings on campus.
"Over the years, since 1924, I think we've given Johnson C. Smith about $85 million for various causes," said Williams. "But there never has been a single gift of this size."
School officials said Thursday they cannot remember another gift as big. The next largest is thought to be a $3.9 million grant in 2002, again from the Duke Endowment.
Williams, a Charlotte native who is now an attorney in Atlanta, said some of Carter's new ventures persuaded Foundation trustees to bolster their support of Smith, one of the nation's oldest historically black universities.
"This is a school that has re-examined its admission policies, a school that wants to be more relevant to the needs in the community," Williams said. "We want to be supportive of efforts that are of a long-term nature."
The Center for Applied Leadership and Community Development is an effort by the school to become more actively involved in the lives of people in a 16-county area around Charlotte. Carter said students and staff will work with neighborhood organizations, to help them to solve problems and grow.
The Metropolitan College is aimed at what Carter calls "nontraditional students" and working adults. It will be housed on the JCSU campus.
Williams admitted that the Duke Endowment has taken a beating during the recession, its total value having fallen from about $3.1 billion to about $2.6 billion.
"These are not the best of times for foundations," he said. "The value of our investments has gone down. So it is important to make the most of our resources. Johnson C. Smith has all kinds of wonderful ideas, and a wonderful leadership team in place."
Student body president Jermaine Gassaway, a senior from Washington, D.C., said the Duke gift "comes at a time when a lot of students are struggling to pay for college."
"This is exciting for us," Gassaway said. "It's a tremendous opportunity for the university to grow."
