University of the District of Columbia has received a record-setting donation. Get the full story from Nick Anderson at The Washington Post below.

Funds will support scholarships for students at the only public university in the nation’s capital.

One day in June, the University of the District of Columbia’s president received a tantalizing email. The sender told Ronald Mason Jr. that he represented an anonymous individual who wished to make a substantial donation to fund scholarships. “We put together a proposal quickly,” Mason recalled. Soon, UDC landed a $300,000 check for a program to support students.

But the donor wasn’t done. Weeks later, the intermediary came to the main campus on Connecticut Avenue in Northwest Washington. Mason met with the representative for an hour and gave him a tour.

Another check to support scholarships arrived in mid-December in a FedEx package, this one for $2 million.

The total gift of $2.3 million set a record for a private donation to the only public university in the nation’s capital, eclipsing UDC’s previous high mark of $1.5 million from an estate in 2009. The latest gift is a relatively modest sum for the arena of higher education philanthropy. Record donations in the range of tens or hundreds of millions are what tend to draw headlines.

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Still, this gift has delivered a strong vote of confidence for a university that, like many others around the country, has faced enrollment declines during the coronavirus pandemic.

“I do not know who the donor is,” Mason said in a videoconference interview on Dec. 21. “I cannot say who the intermediary is. But I know the check was good, and we’re going to put it to good use.”

For UDC, the largesse comes at an opportune time. Two years ago, before the virus struck, federal data shows it had about 4,500 students. For fall 2021, it counted about 3,500 — a drop of roughly 22 percent. The public health crisis and economic whiplash of the past two years took a major toll on the education plans of current and prospective college students in the city and the Washington region.

These issues have been especially acute for the communities UDC serves. More than half its undergraduates have enough financial need to qualify for federal Pell grants.

UDC is an unusual academic hybrid. It operates simultaneously as a community college and a university with bachelor’s and graduate programs, including a law school. For D.C. residents, tuition and fees total about $3,700 a year at the community college level and $8,600 a year for the four-year undergraduate program. Those charges represent the list price before financial aid. Students from outside the city pay more, but UDC offers a special rate for those from neighboring suburbs in Maryland and Virginia.

One hindrance to recruiting students from afar: There are no dormitories on the main campus. UDC is essentially a commuter school.

The new gift is intended to be spent over the next three years on a scholarship program UDC calls DAWN, for Developing America’s Workforce Nucleus. The idea, Mason said, is to “allow more students — especially those from underrepresented and economically disadvantaged groups — to pursue their educational goals while reducing their financial burdens.” Some scholarships will be set aside for students who demonstrate community leadership or commitment to solving community problems. Others will be allocated among various fields of study, from engineering to business and public administration.

The gift could also have symbolic impact as UDC strives to solidify its claim to be a flagship institution for the city, comparable to the public flagship schools in states nationwide.

Formed in 1977 through the merger of three schools — including one that traced its origins to 1851 — UDC has sometimes struggled to raise its profile in a regional market that includes American, Catholic, Georgetown, George Washington, George Mason, Howard and Trinity Washington universities, as well as the University of Maryland. Most of its students come from the D.C. public school system and public charter schools, and more than 70 percent are African American. It is designated as a historically Black university.

Just before the pandemic, UDC had begun a marketing campaignto the city’s residents. Mason’s pitch: “We are affordable and high quality.” Mason, who came to the university in 2015, is its longest-serving president. He said the school in recent years has strengthened its faculty and operations. He wants to raise enrollment significantly. The endowment totals about $56 million.

Federal data shows about 42 percent of first-time, full-time students who entered UDC in 2014 seeking a bachelor’s degree graduated within six years. Such metrics are of limited value for schools like UDC that have many part-time and transfer students, as well as others who are seeking associate’s degrees. Student retention rates — a gauge of stability — were rising before the pandemic.

The pandemic-spurred campus shutdowns of spring 2020, as well as public health scares and economic flux, have hammered schools everywhere, including UDC.

Among the challenges it faces, UDC must reckon with a federally funded program, the D.C. Tuition Assistance Grant, that offers the city’s students direct financial support to enroll in public universities elsewhere, historically Black institutions or private universities within the District. UDC students are not eligible for those grants, on the grounds that the university also offers an in-state discount to city residents. The exclusion from the grant program is an enduring sore point for the university’s supporters.

Andrew Flagel, president and chief executive of the Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area, which includes UDC, said the new gift sends an encouraging signal about the university and its place in the region. “We can reinvest in our own community, work toward retaining our best and brightest and lift up the students who need our support,” Flagel said.

Cheyenne Barber, 23, a senior at UDC who serves on its board of trustees, said the donation has energized students. “It’s very exciting news,” she said. “The whole UDC campus is ecstatic about it.”

Barber came to UDC after stints at Hampton University in Virginia and the College of Southern Maryland. She aims to graduate next spring with a bachelor’s degree in business management. She said she was drawn to the university for its affordability and has been impressed with the caliber of its programs.

“A great education,” she said. “It really feels like a second family for me.”