UA Private Gifts Total $85.2 Million

For the 1998-99 school year, private gifts to the University of Arkansas reached an all-time high of $85.2 million, an increase of 203 percent from $28.1 million the previous year.

The percentage jump is due primarily to a $50 million donation this past October from the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation to what is now the Sam M. Walton College of Business Administration. It was the largest gift in the history of Arkansas higher education and the largest gift ever to an American business college.