The Stephens Greth Foundation donated $50 million to support the Autry C. Stephens Engineering Discovery Building and created a scholarship that supports students from the Permian Basin, according to an Oct. 15 University news release.
About $30 million will go toward the building, $5 million will go toward a lecture hall and $15 million will be used for the Permian Basin student scholarships, said Jennifer Sampson, a board member of the Stephens Greth Foundation.
The scholarship is matched by Texas Challenge, a UT System effort for increasing scholarship funds. The UT System Board of Regents gave $160 million to donors creating scholarships for Texas students from middle- and low-income families. The foundation’s gift completes the challenge, which has created 615 new scholarships and $320 million in new scholarships.
Funds from the challenge are given to students who are eligible for the Texas Advance Commitment and whose families have incomes under $100,000 to help cover tuition, according to the University.
The 207,000-square-foot engineering building opened Sept. 18 and includes the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering and the Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering.
The gift comes from the foundation that honors Autry C. Stephens, who is the founder of Endeavor Energy Resources, an oil and gas company from the Permian Basin. Stephens was raised on a small farm in De Leon, Texas, and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in petroleum engineering from UT.
Stephens was the first in his family to graduate from high school and attend college. Sampson said the foundation wanted to make the same opportunities available to students from the Permian Basin because the region is important to the foundation.
“My hope for the next generation of UT students is (that) they find inspiration in my father’s journey,” said Lyndal Greth, Stephens’ daughter and the foundation’s executive chairman and director, in the University news release.
