Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott has made an unrestricted gift of $17 million to Northern Oklahoma College, according to a social media post from the school.
Northern announced the donation in a Facebook post on Friday, November 21. The state’s oldest public community college, Northern traces its origins to 1901. The land-grant college serves approximately 3,200 students and has a primary campus in Tonkawa, a satellite campus in Enid, and academic programs in Stillwater and Ponca City.
Northern said about 80% of its students receive financial aid and-or scholarships and 75% of NOC students complete their degree debt-free.
MacKenzie Scott appears in 2018.
Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has pledged in 2019 to give away most of her wealth, which Bloomberg estimates is about $38.9 billion. As of mid-October, she has given more than $750 million to more than a dozen colleges and universities, including NOC.
The gift is the largest in Northern’s history. On her Facebook page, NOC President Diana Morris noted that the college’s tagline is “Changing Lives” and said that Scott’s gift “is truly for our students and the communities we serve.”
“I cannot adequately express my gratitude for Ms. Scott’s vote of confidence in the mission and activities of the college by allowing us to allocate resources as we believe are in the best interest of the college,” Morris said. “Her donation will help us as we seek to achieve our vision of serving as a model institution and leader in academic quality and cultural enrichment, promoting student success, collaborative learning, creative and forward thinking, and community responsiveness.”
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On Facebook, state Rep. Trish Ranson, D-Stillwater, said, “What an amazing and life-changing gift to NOC.”
Mike Loftis, the president of the NOC Board of Regents, said the gift adds importance to an upcoming planning retreat held in January by the NOC Foundation, a fundraising organization connected to the college. Loftis said decisions on how to use the $17 million will focus on goals outlined in the college’s 2025-2030 strategic plan, which emphasized growing the student pipeline and producing workforce-ready graduates.
“Because of the unrestricted nature of the gift, the Foundation and the College can work together to determine a spending reduction plan that addresses institutional priorities much more aggressively than would otherwise be possible,” Loftis said.
This article originally appeared on The Oklahoman: MacKenzie Scott gives $17M unrestricted to Northern Oklahoma College