Duke Endowment Provides $8 Million

The Duke Endowment has awarded gifts totaling $8 million to Duke University for financial aid and scholarships, including those given to undergraduate students from the Carolinas.

Half of the gift $4 million will go to the B.N. Duke scholarship program, which awards 10 merit scholarships to students in each entering class from North and South Carolina who are chosen by a faculty committee for their leadership abilities and community involvement.

Until now, a B.N. Duke scholarship covered 75 percent of Duke's tuition costs; however, the latest Duke Endowment gift allows the B.N. Duke program to be fully funded, so scholarships now will cover the entire cost of four years of tuition. In 1999-2000, Duke's tuition is $23,220.

Nearly 13 percent of Duke's undergraduates come from North Carolina and 2.8 percent come from South Carolina.

The Duke Endowment gift also allocates $2.5 million in permanent endowment for the Angier B. Duke Scholarship Program, Duke's prestigious national merit scholarship award for undergraduates. In addition, $1 million will endow need-based scholarships in a challenge grant that seeks donors to give two-thirds of the total amount for a scholarship, with the Endowment making up the rest. The resulting scholarship will be named solely for the donor. Also, $500,000 will go toward financial aid for graduate and professional students.

"We are particularly pleased that this year's grant brings the B.N. Duke Endowment Fund to completion," said Elizabeth Locke, president of The Duke Endowment. "Now all B.N. Duke Scholars will receive full tuition awards, as the A.B. Duke Scholars have in the past. This full-tuition award makes an enormous difference to families who hope to send a child to Duke.

"The scholarship challenge grants are another success story," Locke added. "We have given to this for the past two years and many donors have come forward to create their own named scholarships for two-thirds of the usual cost."

The total cost of attending Duke, including room and board and fees, is $31,829 a year.

Duke has a "need-blind" admissions policy, which means that the financial status or ability of an applicant's family to pay for a college education is not considered in the admissions decision. The university then pledges to provide 100 percent of a student's demonstrated financial need based on a formula commonly used by colleges for all four years of his/her undergraduate education. About 41 percent of Duke students receive some form of financial aid. The average grant package among need-based recipients is about $15,700 each year.

In addition to the $8 million for financial aid and scholarships, The Duke Endowment awarded $500,000 to Duke to help it meet the costs of mounting the Campaign for Duke. One goal of the campaign is to raise $249 million for student financial aid; to date, about $153 million has been raised toward that goal.

"We are extremely grateful to The Duke Endowment for its sustained and generous support of goals and programs that are not only vitally important to this university, but to people in the Carolinas and elsewhere," said Duke President Nannerl O. Keohane. "The faith and support that The Endowment has provided to Duke over the years has been essential to the university's success."

Last month, Duke announced that The Duke Endowment had awarded $325,693 to the university for the Duke Durham Neighborhood Partnership Initiative, including support for the work of the Self-Help Credit Union in its affordable housing programs in Walltown, program and staffing support for a new teen center and an award-winning teen mentoring program in Durham's West End community, and funds for training several hundred Duke students who work in literacy and other volunteer programs in five local elementary schools.

"We should also note the outstanding work of the Duke-Durham Partnership," Locke said. "This year's grant provides continuing support for that program, and new support for the university's efforts in the Walltown neighborhood."