With confetti cannons and a 28-by-26 foot banner, St. Thomas President Julie Sullivan announced on Thursday in the Anderson Student Center a goal of infusing $200 million into scholarship support for students over the next eight years.
A $50 million gift from the GHR Foundation and the estate of Gerald Rauenhorst is a first step toward achieving the scholarship support goal. Rauenhorst is a 1948 St. Thomas graduate and the founder of the real estate development company Opus Group, the namesake for St. Thomas’ school of business. The GHR Foundation is a philanthropic organization started by Rauenhorst.
The gift represents the largest scholarship gift for any college or university in the history of Minnesota. The money will establish the GHR Fellows program, which will give 15 first-year business students four-year, full-tuition scholarships annually.
According to Sullivan, it was the choice of the GHR Foundation and Rauenhorst to designate the money to business students specifically.
“That was Gerry’s legacy,” Sullivan said. “Gerry’s been supporting the Opus College of Business throughout his lifetime.”
GHR program director Kate Seng said the foundation will not participate in the scholarship selection process, but it will stay involved in shaping what the program looks like.
“In terms of selection, we want to take a step back… and turn that over to St. Thomas,” Seng said.
Senior Abby Fink was disappointed to hear the money would only benefit business students.
“I just don’t think the business majors need it,” Fink said. “Most of us science majors are going on to more school. From all the business majors I know, they’re only going for four years.”
Sullivan hopes to establish scholarships for other majors in the future.
“We’re already out talking to other donors about scholarship programs to benefit students of all different majors, from all over the world,” Sullivan said. “We hope to craft a number of other scholarship programs that will complement this one and target other student segments of our population.”
In addition to creating more scholarships, Sullivan is working to keep tuition prices down and increase financial literacy among students.
“We just went through a major evaluation of all of our positions on campus,” Sullivan said. “We continue to look at our operations and how we can do them more efficiently, and all of that helps us minimize any tuition increase. We’re also working on helping to lower student debt by ensuring that students understand the full cost of college and all the sources they can go through to help support it.”
GHR Foundation CEO and St. Thomas Board of Trustees member Amy Rauenhorst Goldman hopes to see more donations made.
“I hope this is an opportunity for Tommies out there to reconnect to the university,” Rauenhorst Goldman said. “This is all about students and scholarships, and from beginning to end, money that comes in through this campaign is to go to students. It’s a great opportunity to engage all the Tommie alumni out there, even those who are still making their way through here, to start a real legacy of giving.”
Solveig Rennan can be reached at renn6664@stthomas.edu.