Paying it Forward Business owners step up to

BY KRIS BEVILL

support education, inspire others to contribute

The northern Plains continues to demand more workers than it has available, but the price for a post-secondary education diploma is simply beyond reach for some of the area’s prime workforce candidates. Likewise, some of the higher education institutions in the area have faced continually decreasing budgets in recent years, forcing them to do more with less and sometimes go without supplements that enhance the student experience. Knowing this, a number of business leaders in the region have stepped up to the plate in a big way, providing hefty donations to area schools in an effort to support the workforce pipeline, show appreciation for alma maters’ efforts and to encourage others to do the same.

Fostering Talent

Rodney Paseka, CEO of Hebron Brick Co., and his wife, Carolyn, both attended Minnesota State University Moorhead and have been long-time supporters of the school. But in February, the couple upped their support in a big way with a whopping $5 million donation to MSUM’s School of Business, now known as the Paseka School of Business in honor of their gift. At least 80 percent of the generous donation will be used for a scholarship endowment. Remaining funds could be applied for a number of uses including research, student competitions, applied learning experiences, faculty positions, guest speakers and program development.

“One of the really common problems coming out of college these days is the burden of student loans, so much of this money will go towards hopefully reducing somebody’s debt as they get out of school, just by virtue of the fact that they have some tuition paid for,” Rodney Paseka says.

Besides having a desire to share their good fortune with the school that has served them well, Rodney Paseka says they also hoped their donation might inspire others to chip in. “Sometimes these types of things can awaken other people’s thoughts about what they can do,” he says.

It looks like that may already be happening. The Pasekas’ donation was followed in April by a $1.5 million donation to the business school for a scholarship endowment, given by an anonymous alum who said, “I just wanted to do something to help kids.” It capped off an impressive year of fundraising for MSUM, which launched last August with a $1 million gift from Scheels to build a football field. That gift was made all the more impressive considering company CEO Steve Scheel did not even attend MSUM. He is a respected business person, however, and President Anne Blackhurst says his reputation and generosity deserve some of the credit for starting the school’s recent flurry of financial gifts. “I think most folks realize he doesn’t invest in things that he doesn’t believe will be successful, so I think that was a really powerful signal to the business community that MSUM is worth the investment,” she says.

MSUM business school dean Marsha Weber says the large donations received by the school have not gone unnoticed by current and future students. The details of how each donation would be spent were still being finalized in early July, but she anticipates that at least 50 students will benefit through the scholarship funds each year.

And with funding trending downward for Minnesota’s public schools for the past decade, the extra cash for professor resources and student experiences is tremendously helpful. “These gifts are incredibly important and will become more and more so all the time,” Weber says.

Blackhurst agrees. “Public institutions especially are just really squeezed between our desire to provide the highest quality education possible and our desire to keep tuitions as low as possible,” she says. “It’s really private donations that can provide what I think of as the margin of excellence.”

South Dakota’s Higher Education Facilities Fund has made private financial support a necessity for higher education for decades. The fund, fueled by 20 cents of every dollar students spend on tuition, limits state money eligible for new facilities or upgrade projects at the schools, so donors are relied upon to fill in the missing capital. South Dakota State University has been lucky enough to receive long-standing support from alumni including Diane and Larry Ness, this year’s recipients of the school’s philanthropic family of the year award.