Scholarship and awards dinner raises $370,000 for scholarships
(Oct. 30, 2003)--The University of Texas at San Antonio President's Scholarship and Awards Dinner, held Oct. 29, raised $370,000 for the newly established UTSA Excellence Fund. The fund will support undergraduate scholarships, graduate fellowships, faculty development, and program enhancement at the fast-growing university.
"We are so grateful to our many friends who made this fund-raiser so successful," said Ricardo Romo, president of UTSA. "As state appropriations for higher education decrease, private philanthropy is even more crucial to UTSA’s goal to become the state’s next research university. Such generosity will make a difference in the lives or our students and in the life of this growing university."
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RSS FeedsRomo honored businessman Edward E. Whitacre Jr., chairman and CEO of SBC Communications Inc., with the inaugural Tom C. Frost Award. The Tom C. Frost Award was created to honor annually a citizen who has provided exceptional leadership to business and community endeavors. The award was named in honor of Frost, who has chaired the UTSA Development Board since 1990.
Pictured from left to right are Tom C. Frost, Frost Bank chairman of the board; Whitacre; Romo and John T. Montford, president of SBC Southwest and SBC SNET external affairs and chair of the scholarship and awards dinner.
Whitacre has a distinguished record of leadership and service to his community through personal and corporate philanthropy. Through this leadership, UTSA and SBC Communications Inc., have forged a broad and diverse partnership in the areas of math and science teacher preparation and biotechnology research and education.
The dinner raised a record amount of funds for student scholarships and featured a surprise pledge of $375,000 by SBC to help establish UTSA's first Distinguished University Chair.
The endowed chair will be in the College of Business and support the Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security (CIAS). The surprise announcement was made by James Kahan, senior vice president at SBC and chair of the CIAS Distinguished University Endowed Chair initiative. SBC pledged $75,000 a year for five years.
The scholarship funds raised that evening included a $100,000 contribution from the SBC Foundation, presented by SBC President William Daley, and a $100,000 contribution for a Presidential Scholarship endowment from the Amy Shelton McNutt Charitable Trust in memory of Amy Shelton and V.H. McNutt.
The evening also honored the university's donor societies, the President's Associates, the Sombrilla Society and the Lone Star Society, as well as individual donors from the past year.
The evening's theme, "Maps, Markers and Milestones" celebrated the development of the 34-year-old university.