By Kate McGuire
Staff Writer
The Baylor Alumni Association has confirmed that it plans to give a $1 million gift to Baylor University, the largest in BAA’s history.
On Jan. 26th, the vote came from the strategic planning committee that all funds had been finalized and that the BAA was to give the $1 million gift.
It wasn’t until Jeff Kilgore, vice president and CEO of the Baylor Alumni Association, made a call to the Waco Tribune – Herald on Friday that the committee’s decision went public.
“It was communicated between our board chair and Baylor’s board chair that this gift had been approved,” Kilgore said.
Now that the strategic planning committee is done with its job of putting the funds together for the gift, the executive committee, a separate committee under the BAA will be working with President Ken Starr’s office to finalize the two group’s agreement on the gift.
Final details will include how the gift will be distributed, whether through the President’s Scholarship Initiative or endowed scholarships.
“The details still need to be worked out on gift designation, on where exactly the money will go. Those are the details that the executive committee will be working out. We are still in the initial part of the process,” Kilgore said.
The BAA’s executive committee will finalize details of giving the $1 million with university officials in the following weeks so that the gift may be completed and agreed to by June 1st.
Although there has not been an agreement between the BAA and the university on receiving the gift, the significance of the gift being the largest the BAA has given remains important, Kilgore said.
Kilgore said in the 1960’s the Baylor Alumni Association became a fundraiser for Baylor University and since then has supported the connection of alumni to current students.
Lori Fogleman, Director of Media Communications at Baylor said, “There is excitement about the gift being given to the university because of its amount.”
The Baylor Alumni Association, and the $1 million gift, is funded by donations from alumni.
According to Kilgore, alumni believe that scholarships are one of the most important things at Baylor.
“If it weren’t for an athletic scholarship I wouldn’t have been able to attend Baylor,” Kilgore said.
In fact, over 90 percent of Baylor undergraduate students receive some type of financial aid, according to Baylor’s Institutional Research and Testing.
When asked about the gift on Monday, officials in the Development Office, the Financial Aid Office and the Director of the Endowed Scholarships had not been informed.
