Special Program in Education

In their final meeting of the fiscal year, the trustees approved five initial grants in a new Special Program in Education. Totaling $46 million, the grants were: University of Denver, $5 million; Johns Hopkins University, $6 million; University of Notre Dame, $6 million; Stanford University, $25 million; and Vanderbilt University, $4 million.

The purpose of the new program is to assist a few selected institutions of higher learning in different regions of the United States to reach and sustain wholly new levels of academic excellence, administrative effectiveness, and financial support.

Although the Foundation has made no commitments beyond the initial grants, the Special Program may include further support to the five universities and grants to a few more institutions.

One of the objectives of the Special Program is to generate support for higher education beyond the amount of the Foundation's grants. Thus, the grants carry matching provisions requiring the universities to raise a total of $117 million from other private sources in order to obtain the full amount of the Ford Foundation grants. These matching funds added to the full amount of the Foundation's grants would total $163 million.

Stanford is required to raise three dollars for each dollar of the Foundation's grant over the next five years. The other universities are required to match the grants two-for-one over the next three years. The first Special Program grant recipients were already engaged in major fund-raising campaigns, or were about to, at the time the grants were made. The Foundation regards the grants as incentives for the universities to raise more funds from more sources. The universities have expressed confidence in being able to reach the higher financial objectives to which the grants have raised their sights.

Beyond the effect on the five universities, the Special Program may also provide a stimulus for efforts by other colleges and universities in seeking the massive new support required by American higher education. The reasons for these extraordinary financial needs are well known, and include: sharp increases in the absolute size of the college-age population and in the proportion of young people seeking higher education; explosions of knowledge that strain facilities and curricula; greater demands for specialized training and more years of education; rising costs; and overdue improvements in faculty salaries and physical facilities.