News and Progress

SBC gives $1 million to MU Engineering to support a high-tech-educated workforce

When corporations give support to higher education, everyone wins.

Jan. 10, 2005

SBC-Missouri President Cynthia Brinkley, BJ '91, and Truman the Tiger lead the M-I-Z-Z-O-U cheer at the Aug. 24 announcement of SBC's $1 million donation to the College of Engineering.

At an August 24 event at the SBC Communications Inc. Data Center in St. Louis, Cynthia Brinkley had two reasons to cheer. She was there to announce a $1 million gift from SBC to help establish a new information technology degree program in the MU College of Engineering. As a Mizzou alumna, Brinkley, BJ ’91, knew the gift would benefit students at her alma mater. As president of SBC Missouri, Brinkley also knew the gift would help prepare potential employees with the skills her company seeks. The new program is designed for students interested in digital media, networks, wireless technology, information systems, and the business of computer systems administration, maintenance and security.

“In a large way, we are really helping ourselves by funding this degree program,” Brinkley said at the gift announcement. “All of Missouri benefits by having a work force educated for high-tech jobs.”

The SBC gift is a result of a growing emphasis on corporate relationships at MU and higher education institutions across the country. According to Giving USA 2004, published by the Giving USA Foundation, corporations and corporate foundations gave an estimated $13.46 billion in cash and in-kind donations in 2003, about 4.2 percent more than 2002 estimates. By targeting development efforts, institutions such as MU hope to encourage corporations to direct more of those dollars to higher education. In fiscal 2003–04, corporations gave more than $18 million to MU.

“Corporate relationships are very similar to personal relationships,” says Chris Kelly, director of development for MU’s Office of Corporate Relations. “We work with deans, development staff and corporate representatives to find the best option that will benefit both the corporation and the University. We are matchmakers, and with the SBC gift, we made a great match.”

A Win-Win Situation

University partnerships with corporations take various forms, including cash gifts and grants, in-kind gifts of technology and other resources, participation on University advisory boards, industrial partnerships to develop and market new products, executive-in-residence programs, faculty enhancement, and scholarship support.

“Through research, we identify companies that might be interested in partnering with the University,” Kelly says. “Then we educate those companies about how such a partnership can benefit them by meeting their recruiting needs or advancing the knowledge base in their area. Many companies that give to the University have an alumni connection.”

The St. Louis-based financial services firm Edward Jones provides annual scholarships to Mizzou students, with a preference for minority students, in a partnership initiated by MU College of Business alumnus Ray Robbins, director of products and services at Edward Jones, along with other alumni employees. The company also offers internships to scholarship recipients. These internships give students a chance to gain real-world work experience while grooming them as potential Edward Jones employees after graduation.

Along with alumni relationships, the University’s strength in a particular area is often the impetus for corporate support. After a gift from Randy Rolf, BS ME ’64, MS ’65, and his wife, Sandy, BA ’65, helped establish the Randolph and Sandra Rolf Fluid Power Laboratory in the College of Engineering, the New York-based Festo Corp. took notice. Festo Corp. gave $250,000 to the laboratory and also encouraged the Fluid Power Association to give $50,000 to support MU research in this field.

As MU development staff find ways to match corporate priorities and philanthropic objectives with the University’s needs, they compete for corporate dollars with a host of other universities and nonprofit organizations.

“Our foundation gets requests for more than $100 million each year, and we give about $5 million each year,” says Gary Rainwater, BS EE ’69, president and chief executive officer of Ameren Corp., based in St. Louis. “As we make decisions, we have to prioritize which organizations are doing the most good.”

For Missouri-based companies like Ameren Corp., keeping philanthropic dollars in the state and supporting the local economy makes good business sense. A 2003 study released by Gateway to Giving, a coalition of business, nonprofit and foundation leaders in St. Louis, found that St. Louis businesses gave $606 million to charities in 2002, and 60 percent of those funds stayed in the St. Louis region. The study also found that the largest companies in the St. Louis area gave $2,717 per employee in 2002, nearly six times more than the national average of $478 per employee.

“Many of our employees grew up in St. Louis, went to school at MU and then came back to St. Louis to work,” Rainwater says. “The money we give to MU has a direct impact on the quality of our future employees. We also know that strengthening the local economy will in turn strengthen our business.”

Sharing the Benefits

Last May, St. Louis corporate executives and MU staff gathered at the Anheuser-Busch conference center in St. Louis for the inaugural Mizzou Corporate Roundtable, an information-sharing forum organized by the University's Office of Corporate Relations.

“We want to facilitate a conversation between senior executives in the region and the University,” Kelly says. “The roundtable is a chance for us to share what the University is like today, including the new challenges we face and the ways in which we are responding to those challenges.”

Designed to showcase the University’s impact as an economic engine in the state, the forum included a presentation on the University’s research strengths by then Provost Brady Deaton, who is now chancellor. Jim Hoffmeister, BA ’67, vice president of Anheuser-Busch, hosted the event, and Brinkley and Rainwater were co-chairs of the forum.

The forum’s featured speaker, Hans Zobel, president and chief executive officer of Festo Corp., discussed manufacturing challenges in the industrial world. In his presentation, Zobel emphasized the fact that the United States is facing a crisis in technological skills that will affect its ability to compete in the global market. This idea underscores the broader importance of targeted corporate gifts, such as SBC’s gift for a new information technology degree program.

“If we can help Missouri companies employ Missouri employees with advanced education and skills, the companies and the graduates are more likely to stay in the state,” Kelly says.

Kelly and his staff held another Mizzou Corporate Roundtable event Oct. 21 in St. Louis and plan to hold a later event in Kansas City. Rainwater says the forums have the potential to do more than educate executives about how supporting the University can benefit their companies; they can rekindle relationships with alumni executives who might have lost touch with Mizzou and remind them of the need for corporate support of public education.

“Corporations have always recognized the need to give to private institutions,” he says, “but there has been the presumption that public universities are supported by the state and so don't need as much support. That’s just not the case these days, and we need to step up and contribute.”

For more information about the Mizzou Corporate Roundtable, call Chris Kelly, director of corporate relations, at 1-877-738-6108 or (573) 884-7853.