Current and future students at UNC Asheville will be the immediate beneficiaries of a recent $1.5 million gift to the University. The gift is among the largest ever made to UNC Asheville.

At the anonymous donor's request, $1 million will go toward scholarships and $500,000 toward operating support. The University will use $250,000 to purchase equipment needed for the University's new Zeis Science & Multimedia Building that will be dedicated this fall. The remaining $250,000 will be set aside to help create a new endowed faculty chair; those funds will be matched in future by private funds and by the state's Distinguished Professors Endowment Trust Fund, established by the N.C. General Assembly in 1985.

“This is a wonderful gift to our University, to our students, and to the public that we serve," said UNC Asheville Chancellor Anne Ponder. "It’s as if this donor read our strategic plan and priorities and knew how important it is for us to invest in scholarships, in faculty expertise and in equipment to ensure that we continue to provide outstanding academic quality. In the current economic climate, when investments in our academic programs are being deferred or eliminated, gifts of this kind match our needs perfectly and are incredibly timely and valuable.”

A portion of the financial aid dollars will be made available to qualifying students beginning in Fall 2009, and the remainder will be invested in scholarship endowments to provide continuing financial aid to undergraduate students into the future.

“At a time when a college education has never been more important, and economic challenges face us at every turn, this kind of gift is transformational for our University and for the students who will attend UNC Asheville next year and in the years to come," said UNC Asheville Board of Trustees Chair Al Whitesides.