School Saved By Donation
By: Import User
Updated: January 7, 2009
Officials of the University of the Ozarks
say the Clarksville school was saved from possible collapse and
closure by a gift from the Walton Family Foundation. The gift of
39.5 million dollars was announced in 1998. Since
then, university officials say the school has been transformed.
Enrollment on the small campus has increased by 38 percent since
1998, from 530 students to 731. Faculty salaries, once extremely
low, are now competitive with similar institutions. The dormitories
and classroom buildings have been expanded and renovated.
That`s a big difference from the early 1990s, when enrollment
was shrinking, a budget deficit was growing and the classroom
buildings and dormitories were run-down. Rick Niece, president of
the school since 1997, recalls that there were three or four times
when people were looking to close the doors. He now credits Helen
Walton, a member of the university`s board and the widow of Sam
Walton, as the catalyst behind the school-saving gift in 1998.
Posted by Mike Hellgren
