By James B. Hyatt
Billionaire software tycoon Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda French Gates, have donated $20 million to Duke University to attract intellectually brilliant, creatively gifted students to the private North Carolina school.
The gift from the William H. Gates Foundation will fund the new University Scholars multi-disciplinary program beginning next fall. The program will provide high-achieving undergraduate, graduate and professional students with scholarships and other resources, including the freedom to choose a wide range of course study, and provide a variety of extracurricular outlets for their intellectual development, Duke officials said.
"A University Scholar will have demonstrated early signs of brilliance combined with an edge of individuality, independent thinking, risk-taking, iconoclasm and even intellectual fearlessness," said Cathy N. Davidson, vice provost for interdisciplinary studies. Her office will plan and initially run the new program, under the direction of Duke University President Nannerl O. Keohane.
The University Scholars program will begin in 1999 with at least eight undergraduate and eight graduate and professional students. Duke officials hope to expand the program to about 75 students a year, and are launching a campaign to fund the additional scholarships.
The program will provide at least $15,000 a year to financially needy award recipients, with the university providing other funds to pay for full tuition. Duke's 1998 tuition for new students is $23,220, not including room and board.
Melinda Gates is a Duke University trustee. She earned a bachelor's degree in computer science and economics at Duke in 1986 while also studying art and literature, and earned an MBA from the university's Fuqua School of Business in 1987.
She joined Microsoft Corp. after leaving Duke and married Gates in 1994. Melinda Gates resigned from Microsoft in 1996 and is now a trustee of the Gates Foundation, which she co-founded.
The foundation provides grants for education, world health and family-planning programs, and civic and arts organizations.
The Gates grant matches Duke's largest individual gifts, including a donation in April from entrepreneur J.B. Fuqua, and a 1995 gift from Duke trustee Peter Nicholas and his wife, Virginia, to support the Nicholas School of Environment.
James B. Hyatt can be reached at
jbhyatt@mindspring.com
