FAYETTEVILLE – A thoughtful donor made a timely gift last week to Fayetteville State University’s Class of 2024: Laptop computers for all incoming freshmen next fall.
It will mark the first time an entire class at the Historically Black University will be equipped with laptops, the university announced.
“I am absolutely thrilled about this generous donation,” Interim Chancellor Peggy Valentine said in a prepared statement.
“This pandemic showed the university the need and importance of students having laptops so they can continue their academic work in the event of a crisis, and this tremendous gift will enable students to do just that with little to no interruption in instruction.”1
FSU spokesman Jeff Womble said the university’s Division of Institutional Advancement wanted to address a need the pandemic crisis revealed.
The shift to online classes this spring due to the coronavirus highlighted gaps in both computer hardware and Internet access, particularly for minority and rural students.
“We recognized that a number of our students did not have the technology necessary to fully join in to participate in classes delivered online,” Womble said. “The donor wanted to ensure that our incoming freshmen would be equipped to adapt to a ‘new normal.’”
The anonymous donor does not want to reveal the amount of the gift, he said, but it will buy laptops for about 700 students in the entering class.
“This is very exciting news. With the coronavirus plaguing the nation, it is great to hear this type of news,″ one of those students, Zaire Bell, told The Fayetteville Observer.
“This makes me just more excited to get to FSU.”2
The gift was made in honor of the late Jacob Dixon Jr., an alumnus of N.C. A&T State University who went on to earn an engineering degree and two master’s degrees, retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Air Force after 23 years, then joined NASA at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where he played an integral role in the design of space transportation systems.3
1 https://fsusites.uncfsu.edu/fsunews/2020/05/07/donor-makes-gift-to-purchase-laptops-for-fayetteville-state-universitys-class-of-2024/.
2 https://www.fayobserver.com/news/20200510/donor-to-provide-laptops-for-incoming-freshmen-at-fayetteville-state-university.
3https://fsusites.uncfsu.edu/fsunews/2020/05/07/donor-makes-gift-to-purchase-laptops-for-fayetteville-state-universitys-class-of-2024/.
Aghanya Techno Chennai says
Wow. So touched while hearing about this generous donations in this COVID-19 period. Many of rural students were affected due to lack of laptop for online classes. Really it’s a appreciated one.