Office Depot Awards $4.5 Million
To Minority-Serving Institutions
By Ronald Roach
Office Depot is awarding $4.5 million to support the United Negro College Fund, the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities and three South Florida universities in efforts to promote opportunities for underrepresented minority students.
“Office Depot has an unwavering commitment to education and the community,” says Steve Odland, the company’s chairman and CEO. “We clearly understand the critical role that education plays in our society and our lives. Universities, in particular, are engines of economic development and entrepreneurship in their communities, our nation and the world.”
Among the grants is a $500,000 award to the UNCF in support of member institutions, the 2006 UNCF Professional Development Institute in Atlanta and student scholarships. HACU also received a $500,000 award to support a five-year partnership, which includes funding scholarships at member institutions, sponsoring HACU’s Capitol Forum event in Washington, D.C., and other programs.
Florida Atlantic University, a Hispanic-serving institution in Boca Raton, Fla., received a $2 million grant to aid in the construction of a new Center for Executive Education in the College of Business.
Florida International University in Miami was awarded a $1 million grant to help fund the school’s “Building for Business” campaign. The award will help pay for the construction of a new College of Business Administration complex. And the University of Miami received $500,000 to develop the Office Depot Innovation Laboratory. The lab will be part of the Anthony Burns Center for Advanced Supply Chain Management in the College of Engineering’s Department of Industrial Engineering.
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