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RFH 2010, Cover Stories, Colgate News

Upstate Instutute Receives Endowment

Wed, Nov 10, 2010

One of Colgate's strongest and most important links to Hamilton and Central New York recently completed assembling a $5.4 million endowment to ensure its work continues.

The Upstate Institute was created in 2003 to provide a variety of services to the region's people, governments and non-profits, while creating field work opportunities for students. During the last seven years, the institute has undertaken a variety of projects, many of which could not have been completed without Colgate's assistance.
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Jean-Pierre Conte '85 and Board of Trustees Chair Chris Clifford '67 made the final two leadership gifts to solidify the endowment. This means the institute has a solid financial foundation instead of having to rely on the university for its budget.

"I have seen the profound impact the Upstate Institute has had on students and community members," said Clifford. "It's a pleasure to pay tribute to Professor (Ellen) Kraly, her staff, and everyone who has made the institute such a resounding success." Kraly is the director of the institute.

With an increased, sustainable budget, the institute can do more of what it does best: facilitate faculty research and coordinate fellowships for Colgate students with local nonprofits. Following this formula, a variety of projects have already been completed under the institute's auspices.

Working with state and local agencies, the institute helped create New York's first online application for food stamps. It launched VITA, Voluntary Income Tax Assistance, which provided income tax preparation assistance for low income families.

More recently, Upstate Field School students have coordinated marketing reviews and video production for the Oneida Mansion House, constructed digital image archives to assist in local forest management or conducted surveys with international refugees settling in the Utica area. A recent graduate developed GIS models that will help Madison County understand the implications of natural gas drilling in the Marcellus shale.

The institute will also take on a further academic component with the addition of the Gretchen Hoadley Burke '81 Endowed Chair for Regional Studies, named through a gift from Gretchen and husband Stephen Burke '80. The first Burke Chair, awarded annually to a faculty member whose research interests focuses on Upstate New York, will be economics professor Nicole Simpson.

More than two dozen individuals, couples, and foundations gave leadership gifts of $50,000 or more. The Brennan Family Foundation has underwritten the remarkably popular Student Philanthropy Council, and the Emerson Foundation alone applied nearly $500,000 in challenge dollars to the endowment total.

Source: Colgate

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