Wal-Mart Store’s annual shareholders’ meeting is providing a steady revenue stream to the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
Wal-Mart paid the UA $1.4 million, which includes $835,000 to rent space at the UA for Wal-Mart’s 2011 shareholder meeting and events, according to the retailer’s recent proxy statement that covers the fiscal year that ended January. That’s down slightly from the $1.5 million the retailer paid during the fiscal year that ended in January 2011.
The Bentonville retailer also paid the UA nearly $150,000, which was half of what it paid in the fiscal year that ended in January 2011, for academic studies and education services and another $324,000 in sponsorships. Wal-Mart also said in the proxy that it expects to use the UA’s facilities in June for its annual meeting, and pay the UA about the same as it did last year.
Wal-Mart also contributed $1 million to the Sustainability Consortium, which is administered by the university. The previous fiscal year, Wal-Mart contributed $400,000 to the group. The consortium comprises a wide range of companies and organizations “working to make the world more sustainable through better products, services and consumption,” according to its website.
Wal-Mart had to disclose these particular transactions because the company’s general counsel, Jeffrey Gearhart, is the brother of UA Chancellor David Gearhart.