The University of Arkansas announced it received an anonymous $1 million gift for the Center for Communication Research in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Communication.
The gift will expand research, professional development and experiential learning opportunities for the next generation of communication scholars and professionals, the university said in a news release.
The planned endowment, facilitated through estate funding, will continue to provide early-stage funding for faculty- and student-led research projects. It will also create student assistantships and expand the center’s public engagement through conferences, panel discussions and forums.
“As a young person growing up in Northwest Arkansas, being able to provide this sort of gift to the University of Arkansas would have been beyond my most enthusiastic dreams,” the donor said in the release. “I am enormously grateful to my family and the University of Arkansas for providing a foundation for a future life and career that still surprises me.”
The donor continued: “My greatest hope is that this gift will enable students and scholars of communication to discover ways to understand and promote the very best of human — and perhaps virtual — communication, relationships and networks,” the donor added.
The Center for Communication Research manages a 1,400-SF research lab. It has supported projects with topics ranging from compassion in the workplace and natural history to virtual reality and the history of agitation and containment.
The Department of Communication consists of 33 faculty and more than 900 graduate and undergraduate students.
“This extraordinary act of generosity will advance research that connects people and ideas across disciplines, enriching both scholarship and community,” Scott Varady, vice chancellor for advancement, said in the release. “We are truly grateful for the opportunities it will make possible for the students and faculty the center serves.”
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