Emory's Oxford College, Candler School of Theology Receive $4.25 Million in Gifts from Oxford College Alumnus' Estate

Oxford College of Emory University and Emory's Candler School of Theology have received gifts totaling more than $4.25 million from the Charles Edwin Suber Foundation.

Oxford College received a $3.35 million gift, the largest cash gift in the college's history, and Candler School of Theology received a gift of $903,177. Both gifts were unrestricted to be used for the most pressing needs of the schools.

The Suber Foundation was established by the estate of Charles Edwin "Ed" Suber. A 1942 graduate of Oxford College who passed away in November 2007, Suber attended Emory University and was retired from the Fulton County Superior Court system as court clerk.

A portion of the Oxford College gift, $100,000, will be used to establish a scholarship in Suber's name. The remaining $3.25 million will be used to support Oxford's building program, including a new science facility, which would replace the current facility built in 1965, and a new library, replacing the current 1970 building.

Stephen H. Bowen, dean of Oxford College, says, "We have needed a major gift to create momentum in raising funds for these building projects. This is that gift. When we look back after 10 years, we will recognize this as a pivotal moment in the development of Oxford College."

Candler School of Theology Dean Jan Love says she will assess where the gift can best be applied in light of funding needs for the second phase of Candler's building projects, as well as student support and faculty enhancement.

"The generosity of this lifelong United Methodist layman is overwhelming and will benefit the Candler community for generations to come. We are deeply grateful for this remarkable gift," Love says.

Suber was a lifelong resident of Atlanta's Ben Hill community, where his family owned and operated the C.P. Suber Grocery Store. He served in the Army during World War II.

Jim Campbell, executor of Suber's estate, says his first cousin was an ordinary man who has left an extraordinary legacy.

"Ed indicated a direction through the gifts he made through his will, and we followed through with that direction," says Campbell, who chose Oxford College and Candler School of Theology to receive gifts from Suber's estate. "He was very kind and he had a great sense of humor. He loved to travel and square dance. He lived a very simple life, but he was very generous to those people and causes he cared about. He was a great person, and his life will go on even if he is not here."

These gifts are part of Campaign Emory, a $1.6 billion fund-raising endeavor that combines private support and the university’s people, places and programs to make a powerful contribution to the world. Investments through Campaign Emory fuel efforts to address fundamental challenges: improving health, gaining ground in science and technology, resolving conflict, harnessing the power of the arts, and educating the heart and mind.


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Foundations, Higher-Education Leaders Explore Models to Increase Access

/PRNewswire/ -- On this historic campus that is the original nineteenth-century home of Emory University, twenty invitees representing some of higher education's most respected institutions have come together to discuss an issue with important implications for U.S. education in the twenty-first century: how to make higher education available more broadly and equitably to current underrepresented groups while also maintaining academic excellence and addressing financial and policy concerns. The conference, "Transformative Models in Higher Education," was organized by the University of Michigan's Center for Advancing Research & Solutions for Society (CARSS), hosted by Emory University and funded by the Ford Foundation.

Groups participating in the conference, held June 18-19, were education researchers, higher-education administrators and foundations with a strong focus on education. Researchers came from the University of Michigan's CARSS, School of Education, Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education and the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching; the University of Virginia's Curry School of Education; Indiana University's National Survey of Student Engagement; and Wabash College's Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts. MDRC, a nonprofit education and social-policy research organization, was also represented. Higher-education administrators and foundations represented included the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Educational Testing Service, Lumina Foundation, Jack Kent Cooke Foundation and the National Forum on Higher Education for the Public Good. Also participating in the conference was Derek Bok, president emeritus of Harvard University, who gave the keynote address.

The focus of consideration was organizational and programmatic models that have fostered high levels of participation and academic success for students from underrepresented minority populations with the goal of identifying "active ingredients" in the programs' success. These were being examined in part because, following the 2003 Supreme Court decision in a case involving the University of Michigan, criteria used to promote minority participation in the past will not be as applicable in the future. The models presented included Lone Star College-CyFair Campus (Texas), the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill's C-STEP Program, the Posse Foundation and Oxford College.

Special attention was given to Emory's Oxford College. Located 38 miles east of Emory University's Atlanta campus, Oxford is one of Emory's nine academic divisions. One-fifth of the students in each Emory freshman class choose to begin their baccalaureate studies with Oxford's liberal-arts-intensive program, which spans their freshman and sophomore years. As juniors, they continue their studies on Emory's Atlanta campus. At Oxford, students have a smaller student body (approximately 750 students total), lower average class sizes (approximately 19) and faculty who, in the absence of academic majors and graduate programs, have the luxury of focusing primarily on classroom teaching. Forty-seven percent of students at Oxford come from minority populations, and many are the first in their family to attend college. These students enjoy high levels of academic success and degree completion at Emory. Oxford places great importance on teaching methods that produce active, engaged learning and, as a two-year course of study, offers unusual leadership opportunities for freshmen and sophomores.

"We were honored to assemble such a stellar group," said Earl Lewis, Emory University provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, who convened the conference. "Their discussion of the Oxford College program gave us invaluable feedback and analysis, and their enthusiasm helps fuel our efforts to make this now-unique model better known."

Conferees concluded that the Oxford model could be applied or adapted at a large number of research institutions. Organizers from CARSS are distilling the conclusions from the conference with the intention of identifying the possibilities for applying existing models and developing new ones.

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Emory Advantage Support Aids Students

If it were not for Emory Advantage, Willow Wood may not have been able to attend college at all, much less realize her dream of studying at Oxford College of Emory University.

Wood knew about Oxford from the stories of her aunt and uncle, who attended Oxford. A junior now at Emory College studying environmental science, Wood says the Emory Advantage program was the only way her dream could have come true. The oldest of four girls, she knew it would be tough to afford college — her mom is a carriage driver and her dad, who grapples with a disability, has worked in the restaurant industry.

“I grew up on stories of Oxford, and I knew it was a special place. I was able to go there, too, because of Emory Advantage,” says Wood. “I can take a full class load without working full-time as well. And I don’t have to worry about graduating with a huge debt.”

Emory Advantage, the university’s financial aid program benefiting low- and middle-income students, was established in 2007 and offers two kinds of aid: the Loan Replacement Grant to replace need-based loans for dependent undergraduate students whose families’ annual total assessed incomes are $50,000 or less, and the Loan Cap Program which caps cumulative need-based debt at $15,000 for dependent undergraduate students whose families’ annual total assessed incomes are between $50,000 and $100,000.

Undergraduate students at Oxford College, Emory College of Arts and Sciences, Goizueta Business School, and the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing are eligible for the Emory Advantage program, and more than 634 students have benefited from the program since its inception. In addition, more than $11 million has been raised so far during Campaign Emory toward the University’s goal of building a permanent endowment.

In today’s economy, programs like Emory Advantage and other scholarship are often the best chance for many promising students to attend a university like Emory without the burden of debt. Says Provost Earl Lewis: “Funds to attend Emory during difficult financial times are critical to our mission of educating our best and brightest regardless of the student’s ability to pay. If ever there was a time to help, this is it.”

Emory Advantage is just one of many programs at Emory where gifts can be directed to help provide critical resources for current and prospective students. Regardless of area of interest, scholarship and fellowship funding opportunities exist in all corners of Emory’s campus. And each of these areas has identified student support as a high priority within Campaign Emory.

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