Divinity School Shares in Financial Aid Initiative

December 6, 2005

Duke Divinity School plans to raise at least $10 million for endowed scholarships as part of a three-year, university-wide financial aid effort.

The overall project, called Affording Opportunity Duke's Financial Aid Initiative , has a goal of $300 million. The focus will be exclusively on endowment for scholarships to help provide further support to meet the financial needs of students. The initiative officially begins this month and continues through 2008.

"Adding permanent resources for student financial aid is our greatest ongoing need," said Duke Divinity School Dean L. Gregory Jones. "$10 million in additional scholarship endowment is the minimum required to keep us moving forward attracting and supporting the best students."

"Theological education is costly even though we strive to maintain our tuition at less than half that of the rest of the schools at Duke," Jones added. "This is a truly significant opportunity to secure new endowed scholarships as well as to strengthen our present scholarship resources. It is critical for training the sustained transformative leadership needed by the church today."

A record grant to Duke University of $75 million from The Duke Endowment, based in Charlotte, N.C., will be used in the financial aid initiative by the undergraduate, graduate and professional schools, matching, dollar for dollar, contributions of $100,000 to $1 million.

Duke Divinity School will have up to $2 million available for this challenge. The chance immediately to double the value of an endowment, along with an opportunity for permanent naming and prioritizing causes and recipients, makes a compelling case for generous scholarship support, Jones said.

Current divinity school Board of Visitors member David Stone of Grosse Pointe Farms , Mich. , is serving on the Duke Financial Aid Initiative steering committee, which is co-chaired by Duke alumni and former trustees Sally Robinson and Richard Wagoner. Other committee members include Morris Williams, past chairman of the divinity school Board of Visitors, and Jack Bovender, who chaired Duke Divinity School 's highly successful participation in the Campaign for Duke .

Divinity School graduates and friends are urged to join with the Financial Aid Initiative. Please contact Wes Brown wbrown@div.duke.edu or Gaston Warner gwarner@div.duke.edu at Duke Divinity School (telephone 919-660-3456) with personal commitments and the names of prospective donors. In future months we will share stories about the difference that financial aid has made for the formation and ministry of our alumni. Ideas for securing this vital new support are welcomed.