Mott's aid formula for public black colleges

To create a legacy to black colleges that will provide long-range, lasting value - this is the unique goal of the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation of Flint, Mich., in its new project, the establishment of an endowment fund for public, state-supported black colleges. This project will be modeled after the successful College Endowment Funding Plan, now in its third year as an endowment plan for private black colleges.

The Mott Foundation will provide $1 million to launch the new project. Because the nation's black state colleges have virtually no endowment funds, the Mott Foundation offers this process:

Each college interested in this program would raise $250,000. The Mott Foundation would give the school $100,000. With $350,000 the school would apply to the Robert R. Moton Memorial Institute that is administering the private black college program of the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) for a $400,000 25 -year loan from a consortium of 21 insurance companies, three of them black.

After 25 years, for each $250,000 raised, the college would realize a $2.35 million endowment fund, plus $1 million to be used as operating capital and funds to pay off the $400,000 loan and all interest. The state would have no control over this money.

In the private college program 19 colleges are investing in 33 $750,000 individual units. Private schools raise $300,000, receive $50,000 from UNCF, and borrow $400,000 from the insurance group for each unit. The 33 units could build operating expenses. Two colleges, Bennett and Claflin, have seven units each, and Benedict College has six units.

The Mott Foundation has hired Dr. Frederick D. Patterson, former president of Tuskegee Institute and a founder of the UNCF, as director of the new program.