Lilly gives university $2M grant
By Elizabeth Turnbull
News Editor

The university received nearly a $2 million grant last week from the Lilly Endowment Inc.

The grant was awarded to the university through aninitiative called “Programs for the Theological Exploration of Vocation,” in what the Endowment calls an effort to bring highly educated, talented people into ministry.

The grant, designed to further Christian vocation, comes just two weeks after the Baptist State Convention voted to sever all formal ties with the university.

According to an Endowment press release, the $1,996,535 will help establish the Pro Humanitate Center, a program that will coordinate activities to encourage students and other members of the university to “explore the meaning of vocation in their lives.”

The activities, according the press release, are expected to include a campus-wide examination of the significance of the university’s Baptist heritage and identity, seminars and workshops on vocation, the incorporation of vocational reflection in service-learning areas and “support for students to consider a call to Christian ministry.”

The university, however, has yet to publicly announce the details of the grant and declined to comment on the Endowment’s press release.

A total of $55.3 million was given in the second round of the initiative to 28 colleges and universities throughout the country.

Other North Carolina schools that also received the grant include Guilford College and Duke University.

The $2 million grant it received from the Endowment marks Guilford’s largest single grant from a foundation in the school’s history.

“Programs that have to do with our student’s vocation … will be heavily impacted,” said Ty Buckner, the director of Guilford College relations.

The Lilly Endowment was established in 1937 by members of the Lilly family, the founders of Eli Lilly pharmaceuticals as an outlet for their philanthropic interests.

The endowment provides funding in the three major areas of religion, education and community development.

News Editor Elizabeth Bland contributed to this article.