A former Arkansas State University System trustee and his wife have given $1 million to the university's College of Business.
Charles and Kay Luter of Paragould announced the gift at the college's annual Homecoming banquet in Jonesboro on Thursday, according to a news release. The family wants to use $250,000 for the college's largest single student scholarship endowment, another $500,000 for two endowed professorships in finance and in strategic management, $100,000 for building improvements and $150,000 for the A-State Student Investment Fund, the Jonesboro university said.
"It's transformational for what we want to be able to do for our students," said Shane Hunt, the college's dean. "Our two overarching goals [are] to provide all of our students a great return on investment -- with the very best faculty in the classroom ... the very best physical spaces ... and having hands-on experiential learning opportunities. The second part is we want to help our students reduce the cost associated with getting a college degree."
The Luters' gift addresses both of the goals, he said.
"All of us in the A-State College of Business are eternally thankful for what Charles and Kay have done," Hunt said.
ASU's College of Business is home to some 1,700 undergraduate and graduate students, he said. It was the first college on the campus to have 60 permanently endowed scholarships before the Luters' gift.
The scholarship requirements have not been ironed out yet, but the interest accrued from the endowment will likely fund more than one full scholarship for a business student, Hunt said, adding that he wasn't sure when the scholarships will be available to students.
The professorships allow the college to double the number of endowed spots just this year, Hunt said.
Typically, colleges and universities either use endowed professorships to recruit new talent to the campus -- as ASU is doing with the Jones/Schaaf Endowed Chair of Accounting position -- or to retain or reward existing faculty. Money from interest in the endowment can be used in several ways, including salary increases, research funds or travel costs.
Hunt said Friday that he wasn't sure which route the college would take for the two new professorships.
The $100,000 will be used to upgrade learning spaces in the college's two buildings, in which a lecture hall will now bear the Luters' names.
The remaining money will go to the Student Investment Fund, in which students manage a real portfolio of stocks and bonds. In groups, students propose to a board of advisers why they want to buy or sell a certain stock.
"The $150,000 would give them more money to manage," Hunt said. "They'll have a broader portfolio to get that hands-on training."
The donation is the latest of the Luters' gifts to the Jonesboro campus, their alma mater.
Charles Luter received a business administration degree from the university in 1966, while Kay Luter earned a bachelor's degree in education in 1965 and a master's in 1978.
The two became lifetime members of the university's Alumni Association, and in 2008, the couple donated $400,000 for the Charles Luter Academic Success Center. The center is a 3,000-square-foot facility near the ASU football complex that provides academic help to student athletes.
Charles Luter has also served as president of the Indian Club, now called the Red Wolves Foundation, and as president of the ASU Foundation. In 2011, he was appointed to the ASU System board of trustees, a post he vacated earlier this year.
On Thursday, the university also named him the college's Business Executive of the Year.
Luter, 77, came from Biggers, a town of about 300 in Randolph County, he said. With his ASU degree, Luter worked at and owned "a couple of banks," which were later sold. He is now retired.
"I never expected to do as well as I did, but I did," he said. "And I contribute a lot of it to the people that helped me and to the university that allowed me to get a degree. I want other students that maybe are in the same circumstances I was to have the same opportunity."
Metro on 10/15/2016