July 17, 2008
Bowling
Green, Ky. - Western Kentucky University today announced a gift of $500,000 from John and Jacque Hughes Jarve of Atherton, Calif., to create the University’s first endowed professorship in Honors.
According to Tom Hiles, WKU’s Vice President for Institutional Advancement, the Jarve Endowed Professorship in Honors will be matched by $500,000 through the Commonwealth of Kentucky’s Regional University Excellence Trust Fund, providing total impact of $1 million for the professorship.
Hiles said the state legislature passed a new round of matching money during its last session. WKU’s portion will be $2,439,000. This is the first gift WKU has announced to take advantage of the new round of “Bucks for Brains” funds.
“The professorship fund will support the work of the director of the WKU Honors College, and it will provide funding in support of undergraduate research,” Hiles said. “The Honors College offers some of the University’s most outstanding students the opportunities to both challenge themselves and take an active role in their professional training and intellectual growth. WKU’s Honors College is the first and only one of its kind in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.”
Dr. Craig T. Cobane, Executive Director of WKU’s Honors College, will serve as the first Jarve Professor. He said the named professorship will bring added prestige for WKU’s new Honors College.
“This gift will allow the Honors College to financially support undergraduate research during the semesters and in the summer,” Dr. Cobane said. “Students will be able to spend more time focused on their research, thus learning to be better researchers.”
Dr. Cobane said the Jarve Undergraduate Research Fund, supported by a portion of the endowment, will allow Honors students from any discipline to propose a substantive semester or summer research project and have the project funded by this endowed scholarship program. The scholarship will provide each recipient with a student stipend, funding for research or creative endeavors, and an honorarium for a faculty mentor.
“These undergraduate research opportunities will lead to increased number of students writing senior Honors theses,” he said. “Additionally, by enabling more in-depth research, an increased number of undergraduate students will publish articles, which will allow them to both be competitive in national scholarship and fellowship competitions and be accepted to prestigious graduate or professional schools.”
Dr. Cobane said the Jarve Endowed Professorship in Honors will help raise the visibility of the WKU Honors College at both the state and national levels. “I am both honored and humbled by the generosity and confidence the Jarves have shown in our vision of the Honors College,” he said. “They have demonstrated their confidence in the value of engagement-based educational opportunities for undergraduate students and the Honors College as it positions itself to be a destination point for the nation’s top students.”
Jacque Hughes Jarve, a native of Adairville, Ky., graduated from WKU in 1981 with a B.S. in Textiles and Clothing. An active community volunteer, she is a member of WKU’s Board of Advisors and is on the Board of Trustees for the Palo Alto Medical Foundation. She has run her own public relations firm and previously worked for Intel Corporation for 10 years in advertising and public relations.
John Jarve is the managing director of Menlo Ventures, one of the Silicon Valley’s oldest and largest venture capital partnerships. A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, he worked at Intel Corporation in various marketing positions before he joined Menlo Ventures in 1985. He is a trustee of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and he served as a Hays Watkins Visiting CEO Professor at WKU in 2005.
The Jarves previously created the Jarve Fund for Excellence in Ogden College at WKU. They have two children: Will, a freshman at Stanford University, and Katie, a freshman at Sacred Heart Preparatory School in Atherton.
Jacque Hughes Jarve said she is pleased this gift will allow students to work with faculty mentors. “I believe that having an inspirational advisor can certainly serve to focus students and allow them to reach their greatest potential,” she said. “It is our hope that this endowment will allow WKU Honors students to learn discipline-specific research skills and conduct quality independent research.”
John Jarve agreed. “I am extremely impressed with the great work that WKU President Gary Ransdell is doing at WKU and am very excited about the special opportunities the Honors College offers to WKU's top students.”
President Ransdell said the Jarves “recognize that the Honors College is critical to the realization of WKU’s bold vision to be a leading American university with international reach. This gift represents a monumental boost of confidence to the growing intellectual environment at WKU. Private support like this is how WKU’s strategic plan will be achieved.”
Dr. Barbara Burch, WKU’s provost and vice president for Academic Affairs, said the gift will have a significant impact for the Honors College and the university.
“It will ensure continuing capacity to engage strong leadership for the College as well as to advance the research opportunities for our undergraduate honors students,” she said. “It is particularly meaningful to have the support of the Jarves as we build this program in ways that will provide unique opportunities for the students who are a part of the Honors College.”
More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu. If you’d like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.
Contact Tom Hiles, (270) 745-6208 or Craig Cobane, (270) 745-2081.
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