W&L to Receive $33 Million: Alumnus Pledges Funds, Says School Must Match It and Use It to Sustain Salaries

By Rex Bowman, Richmond Times-Dispatch

Mar. 22–Salaries for faculty are going up at Washington and Lee University, thanks to a $33 million gift the Lexington school is receiving from an alumnus who made a fortune in cable television.

H.F. “Gerry” Lenfest, class of 1953, said he will give the school the money on two conditions: the university has to come up with $33 million in matching money, and the $66 million total has to go to raise and maintain faculty salaries.

“This is one of Washington and Lee University’s finest hours,” said Philip W. Norwood, the university’s rector. “Our great friend and benefactor Gerry Lenfest has provided the leadership for us to realize one of our most pressing initiatives: bringing our faculty compensation to the mean of that of comparable institutions. A gift of this magnitude will have a tremendous and enduring impact.”

The average annual salary for a full professor at Washington and Lee is $98,600, which university officials say is below the mean paid at other top private universities. Nationwide, including public and private schools, full professors were paid an average of $87,700 for the 2003-2004 academic year, the last for which data are available, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Lenfest, a former trustee of W&L, and his wife, Marguerite, have previously donated almost $30 million to the university.

Lenfest is president and CEO of the Lenfest Group in West Conshohocken, Pa. Lenfest went to Columbia Law School after graduating from W&L and practiced law for a New York firm. In 1974, he formed the Lenfest Group and bought two cable television companies. When he sold his cable operation in 2000 to Comcast Corp., it had become the 11th largest in the nation.

Lenfest explained his gift in a written statement: “No matter how much one loves teaching or a particular university, it is important to be adequately compensated for that dedication. Like all Washington and Lee alumni, I am proud of what this school has become, a major teaching institution in the U.S. My life benefited from great W&L teachers and I am happy to make sure that today’s students have that same benefit.”

Provost Tom Williams, who is stepping down from his job June 1 to rejoin the faculty and resume teaching physics, said the university has been discussing how to raise salaries for the past several years.

“This is very exciting news,” he said. “When I arrived here in 1974, Washington and Lee was a smaller place and a simpler place and not a place with much visibility outside some places in the South. But it’s grown in reputation and quality, and its reputation is continuing to grow. Gerry Lenfest is a smart enough guy to realize that salaries are an important issue when you’re trying to recruit and hire faculty.”

Williams said the school will likely launch a campaign to raise the matching $33 million within one to two years.

Contact staff writer Rex Bowman at rbowman@timesdispatch.com or (540) 344-3612.

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Copyright (c) 2007, Richmond Times-Dispatch

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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