Significant Exxon contribution to boost programs

Exxon officials recently were on campus to present President Donald Zacharias with a check for more than $60,000. The unrestricted gift to Mississippi State was made possible through Exxon Foundation's Educational Matching Gift Program, which provides three-to-one matching gifts given by Exxon employees and retirees to U.S. institutions of higher learning.

James C. Bowen Jr., a 1964 mechanical engineering graduate of Mississippi State, made the presentation. The contribution represents the foundation's match of 36 Exxon employee and retiree gifts to Mississippi State.

"We are very grateful for the foundation's support to our university and to other colleges and universities within the United States," said Zacharias. "And we are proud of our former students who continue to invest in Mississippi State's bright future."

The Educational Matching Gift Program was instituted by the non-profit Exxon Education Foundation in 1962 to stimulate individual giving to colleges and universities. Since its inception, the program has provided more than $135 million to some 1,000 institutions of higher learning. So far this year the program has provided unrestricted grants totaling $12 million to 918 colleges and universities.

Under the current terms of the program, donors can give up to $5,000 a year to colleges and universities with which they are affiliated and the foundation will match those gifts up to $15,000.

In addition to its Matching Gift Program, the foundation's principal areas of interest are mathematics education, the restructuring of elementary and secondary education, university-based scientific research, and increasing educational opportunities for minorities.

Total Exxon Education Foundation giving in 1993 exceeded $19.8 million.