Black Alumni Association Endows Scholarship

The names of 111 contributors who laid the foundation for the new Black Alumni Association Endowed Scholarship have been memorialized on a plaque unveiled Feb. 13 in Butler’s Efromyson Diversity Center.

Thanking donors gathered for the unveiling, Delia Askew ’99, president of the Butler University Black Alumni Association, said $66,000 has been pledged to date, far more than the association’s original goal of $25,000.

“You have made it possible for a previously established annual scholarship to become a permanent, ongoing source of financial assistance for full-time black students pursuing their education at Butler,” Askew said.

BAA vice president Kimberly Sterling ’00, who chaired the campaign, said she, Askew and Alana Washington ’01 made the first multi-year pledges to the scholarship and actively encouraged others to contribute. In May 2007, Butler President Bobby Fong and Board of Trustees members Richard Hailey ’71 and Wayne Patrick ’75, trustee emerita the Rev. Jean Smith ’65 and past trustee Clarence Crain ’73 hosted a reception to raise awareness and money for the scholarship.

More gifts were raised through alumni receptions during the Circle City Classic and through a letter written by Smith. Many donors were encouraged, Sterling said, by Smith’s call for them to “change some corner of this world … by providing scholarship assistance for a young person to attend Butler.”

Dr. Fong thanked donors for sharing educational opportunity with current and future students.

“Seeing the names on this plaque, they will remember that others have made sacrifices so that they could earn a degree," he said. "They will understand that they also must give their best efforts in their studies, if they are to succeed as you have.”