Mathematics program receives $1.2 million gift

Norm Stewart hopes Miller's donation will bring in top-notch teachers.

By Campbell Massie

Published Oct. 16, 2007

Some grade school students' nightmares have come true. The College of Education's Mathematics Education Program was given $1.2 million in an effort to train more math teachers.

The MU College of Education played host to the Grace Bibb Society Dinner to recognize the philanthropy of the society's members and to announce a donation of $1.2 million toward a new endowed chair in the Mathematics Education Program.

The sixth annual dinner, held at the Donald W. Reynolds Alumni Center, was originally held to recognize the generosity of the giving club's members. But it turned into an opportunity to announce member Richard Miller's gift.

Miller, who has supported MU in other departments as well, did not attend the dinner to announce his gift, so keynote speaker Norm Stewart made the announcement.

Stewart is best known as the MU basketball coach from 1967 to 1999. His achievements as coach have earned him induction into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame later this year.

Stewart is also a two-time graduate of MU with both his bachelor's and master's degree in education.

Stewart said the gift also responds to a lack of good math teachers.

"It keeps you competitive," he said. "It gives you the ability to attract the top people to the university."

The donation will encourage opportunities for research, travel and collaboration between scholars, enabling faculty to better meet the needs of students, Provost Brian Foster stated in the news release.

It also gives the College of Education a great advantage in staying competitive with other schools in order to attract the best professors and students to MU.

"It will allow us to recruit internationally for a renown scholar who studies how children learn math and therefore can help us prepare teachers to go into schools and be more effective in teaching math, so it will have this huge ripple effect," College of Education Dean Carolyn Herrington said.

Deputy Chancellor Michael Middleton and his wife, Julie Middleton, were co-chairpersons for the event.

"Math is critical to economic development in Missouri," Middleton said. "For the advancement of the sciences worldwide, we need a strong math education department."

Besides the newly endowed chair, the dinner celebrated the new and current members of the Grace Bibb Society, a philanthropic organization named for the first female dean at MU and in the College of Education.