Ford donates $5 million to Wayne State University; Portion of funds to support programs with Ukraine (11/07/99)

Ford donates $5 million to Wayne State University

Portion of funds to support programs with Ukraine

PR Newswire

DETROIT - Wayne State University and Ford Motor Co. have announced a five-year, $5 million contribution from the Ford Motor Co. Fund, the philanthropic arm of the company, to support major initiatives at WSU in engineering, business, occupational health, libraries and foreign language instruction, including business programs targeted at Eastern Europe, such as an exchange program with the International Management Institute in Lviv.

"Wayne State is extremely grateful for this wonderful affirmation of Ford Motor Company's continuing partnership with the university in so many important areas," said WSU President Irvin D. Reid. "This grant will enable us to significantly advance our urban mission through high-quality research and increased access to higher education for all groups. It also helps us to provide the technological and curricular tools to assist students in meeting the challenges of today's global economy."

The grant marks the continuation of a well-established relationship between Wayne State and Ford.

"Ford Motor Company's support for higher education continues to be a top priority as we strive to become the world's leading consumer company for automotive products and services," said Helen Petrauskas, Ford Motor Co. vice-president of environmental and safety engineering and the company's executive sponsor for WSU. "Our relationship with Wayne State is a partnership in the truest sense. Together, we are focusing on myriad efforts to further research and enhance educational opportunities. It's a win for everyone involved."

In the College of Engineering, the latest contribution will support high school programs for women and minorities. Both the Women in Engineering training program and the High School Engineering Training Institute were developed to increase the number of underrepresented minorities and women in engineering. The grant also will support the Higher Learning Education Program (HELP), which offers tutoring for undergraduate engineering students in mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology, computer science and engineering courses. HELP also offers personal counseling, career counseling and professional development assistance.

School of Business Administration programs supported by the contribution include the Student Honors Program for Minority Excellence, in which students work in Detroit businesses as their laboratory for study.

The grant also will fund the school's Global Perspectives in Management program and Eastern European internships, which allow candidates for master's degrees in business administration from abroad to study and understand the free market system. The programs include an M.B.A. exchange agreement with the Lviv Institute of Management in Ukraine

In the College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions, the grant will support the Environmental Exposure Facility. The school will use the facility to assess the effects of inhalation exposure to irritants, particulate and microbial products.

The department also will use a portion of this latest Ford contribution to support the Ford Motor Co. Minority Scholarship Fund, which provides financial assistance for minority students for tuition, books, research and travel-related expenses.

In addition, the contribution will support efforts by the Foreign Language Technology Center in the College of Liberal Arts to convert an antiquated language audio laboratory and a group instruction classroom into a modern 120-seat distance learning facility for foreign language and cultural instruction. The center will provide global television broadcasts of foreign languages, using advanced video and Internet technologies to reach learners elsewhere in Michigan and around the world.

The Ford grant will enable the David Adamany Undergraduate Library, operated by University Libraries, to immediately add another 10,000 volumes to its book collection. The move enables the library to take a significant step toward its long-term goal of 100,000 volumes supporting the full range of subjects in the undergraduate curriculum.

| Home Page |