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MSU Delta Gamma treasurer Sarah Crain of Holly Springs (second from right) and vice president Kathryn Adamson of Birmingham, Ala., (right) present a Martin Lectureship endowment check to MSU Foundation officers Trish Hughes and Richard Armstrong. Hughes is director of special giving Armstrong, executive director.
The Delta Gamma social sorority at Mississippi State is asking its alumnae and friends to help build an endowment to fund a public lecture series at the university.
The chapter already has raised $25,000 toward the effort and is seeking a matching amount from private sources to create a local Dorothy Garrett Martin Lectureship in Values and Ethics. To establish the program, individual chapters must raise $50,000 to qualify for an equal match from the Delta Gamma Foundation.
The lectureship series began in 1992 with businessman Paul Martin's creation of a memorial to his wife at the University of Akron, her alma mater and home to Delta Gamma's oldest active collegiate chapter. Since then, the Martin Challenge has been accepted by a dozen other campuses, including MSU.
"We are very proud that Mississippi State will become the first university in the Southeast to have this lectureship series," said chapter vice president Kathryn M. Adamson, a junior management major from Birmingham, Ala.
Delta Gamma was founded in 1873 at the Lewis School for Girls in Oxford, Miss. Chartered in 1969, the MSU chapter has nearly 200 active and some 1,500 alumna members.
Adamson said MSU joins the University of Texas and Purdue University in a current push to expand the lectureships. In addition to Akron, programs already are in place at the universities of Missouri, Oklahoma and Southern California, and at Duke, Southern Methodist, Texas Christian and Wichita State universities.
The program's goal is "to bring to campus noteworthy speakers whose life contributions illustrate the value of ethical conduct, personal honesty and individual responsibility," Adamson said. "The events will be free and open to all interested persons."
Poet Maya Angelou, former first lady Barbara Bush, radio and television reporter and commentator Cokie Roberts, and actor Charlton Heston are among noted individuals who have participated on other campuses.
The MSU lectureship series is scheduled to begin with the 2003 fall semester. Eddie Keith, director of the Office of Student Life, will serve as gift director.
"We are encouraging all Delta Gamma alumnae and other friends of Mississippi State to assist the chapter in raising funds for the lectureship," chapter president Jenny Ruth Green said. "We believe this program can have a lasting impact on everyone who takes part."
Green is a senior communication/public relations major from Jackson.
The Dorothy Garrett Martin Lectureship in Values and Ethics is an open fund in the MSU Foundation. To make a contribution or receive additional information on the program, telephone the foundation at (662) 325-1006 or the sorority at 325-6380.