The University of Wisconsin Book Store announced Thursday it will give $25,000 to go toward student scholarships.
The amount is the Book Store’s second gift to its Board of Trustees People Scholarship, which provides financial aid to students annually. Beginning this year, the amount will go to the Madison Initiative for Undergraduates.
“Whenever we talk to people in administration, we know that need-based scholarships are one of the biggest under-funded things on campus,” Book Store President Patrick McGowan said. “We really want to take a lead on having businesses in the area support the chancellor’s need-based scholarships.”
He went on to say while the company is private, it has a strong commitment to the UW community and serving students.
“As much as we’re the university bookstore serving this campus, we’re a trust that’s there for the benefit of the students. We try to provide that benefit through textbook offerings, as well as scholarship money,” McGowan said.
Because the funds will go through the Madison Initiative for Undergraduates, the amount will be matched by the UW Foundation, which has allotted $20 million in funds for the initiative.
UW Foundation Pres-ident Sandy Wilcox said by matching gifts, the foundation is able to drive more donations for the initiative.
By generating more gifts, he said it also accomplishes the UW Foundation’s goal of improving the college experience and making tuition more affordable.
“The Book Store has been an amazing donor over the years. It’s always kind of gotten behind just about everything we do,” Wilcox said. “It’s pretty interesting that these are hard times for everybody, and for the Book Store to come up with something like that is pretty admirable.”
The UW Book Store is not the only organization making donations to the People Scholarship. According to Wilcox, faculty and staff on campus have also been driving fundraising through the UW Faculty-Staff Initiative, which includes funds from and solicited by UW faculty.
“If the people on campus do it, it makes our job of telling people off-campus about it easier. It impresses people,” Wilcox said. “As we take this on the road, … it gives it a lot of believability.”
