Dr. Steve and Ann Rhodes pledge $100,000 planned gift to School of Communication
The gift, which works like an estate gift (a planned portion of inheritance), will help fund the School’s Director’s Endowment, which was originally established by the Rhodes in collaboration with Randall and Lisa Doran, Western Michigan University School of Communication alumni.
Funds generated by this endowment are used at the discretion of the director of the School of Communication in consultation with the school's executive committee to meet the goals of the school as they relate to promoting, enhancing and improving the school for both faculty and students.
The Rhodes, who both served as directors before retiring (Ann Rhodes served as the Assistant Director of Planning and Budgets at Michigan State University) said the endowment, and the purpose it serves, is particularly important to them because of their backgrounds.
“Back when we were directors and we were looking at fundraising issues, we realized a lot of people were willing to give to brick and mortars or to scholarships, but a tough area as a director was that you really didn’t have access to any funds directly that you could use at your discretion to support faculty, programming, classes and more,” says Steve Rhodes.
The Director's Endowment is currently used to support bringing guest speakers to campus, supporting student and faculty travel for conferences or to fill in gaps in funding for programming and faculty support.
“What’s so remarkable about this gift is that Ann and Steve first made the initial commitment, have continued to be involved in the activities of the school since then and now are providing a second generous gift,” current School of Communication Director Leigh Ford said. “We are really grateful for the gift, and for their continued support.”
The continued growth in the School of Communication, its reputation as one of the top communication programs in the nation and the development of faculty and staff drive the Rhodes’ commitment to the school, says Steve Rhodes, who explains that it was always he and Ann’s intention to give a secondary gift if they could.
“We considered and talked about this gift quite extensively when we gave the first and second time,” Ann Rhodes said. “It’s very helpful when you are recruiting faculty, and trying to keep your current good faculty, to have some additional funds to help with their travel and research. I think it’s critical to have some fund for that -- if we can do something to help that, we want to. We thought if we could help alleviate that shortage of funds a little, that would be very important for the director.”
Learn more information about the School Director's Endowment Fund.