• SBC, SAN ANTONIO, $10 MILLION $10 million to Texas Tech University, in Lubbock. Half of the interest from the endowment will be used to fund two hundred scholarships of $25,000 each, which will be awarded to underprivileged high school students who graduate in the top 25 percent of their class. The rest of the money will help pay for endowed chairs and professorships. “Our gift is an opportunity to demonstrate SBC’s commitment to education,” said Edward E. Whitacre, Jr., the CEO of SBC Communications. The donation is the largest ever made by the telecommunications company to an educational institution and one of the largest ever received by Texas Tech.
• GTE, IRVING, $2,499,500 $1.5 million to the University of Kentucky, in Lexington, to create an endowed chair in computer science and to help fund the construction of the Center for Networking Excellence. . . . $549,500 to 25 organizations in the Metroplex, including the Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce and North Texas Public Broadcasting. “GTE recognizes and appreciates the essential and valuable role of nonprofit organizations in the Metroplex,” said John Appel, the president of the network services division of the telecommunications company, which relocated from Connecticut to Texas last fall. . . . $450,000 to fifteen U.S. colleges and universities, including the University of Texas, to create programs that will recruit and train minority students in math, science, and engineering.
• DELL, ROUND ROCK, $364,000 $228,000 to the University of Texas at Austin to sponsor nine technology- and business-oriented projects. . . . $100,000 to the Austin Museum of Art to help fund education outreach programs; to support the Art Ball, the museum’s biggest annual fundraiser; and to help underwrite an art exhibit on robotics. . . . $36,000 to the Austin Lyric Opera to pay for the creation of its first community music school and to help fund scholarships for children and adults. “Our gifts are about making Austin an even better place in which to raise our families, to attract the best and brightest, and to grow our business,” said CEO Michael Dell.
