Pruitt legacy supports students
February 5, 2020
In 2018, UAF alumnus James Pruitt left a planned gift of more than $3 million to
both the School of Management and the UAF Alumni Association.
Today, part of that gift forms the nucleus of the Student Support Fund, which helps
students through unexpected challenges. Proceeds from the 2020 Blue and Gold Celebration
will build on Pruitt’s legacy by adding to the fund.
Pruitt’s gift may have seemed to come from out of nowhere. But the real story is
that he was connected to UAF long after he graduated, in particular through an almost
monthly correspondence with folks at the School of Management.
Pruitt received his Bachelor of Business Administration from the school in 1973. He
started working for Amoco about six months after graduating and was able to retire
after a long career with BP, which acquired Amoco in 1998. He was 68 years old when
he died.
Tammy Tragis-McCook, the school’s development and outreach director, started talking
to Pruitt a little more than five years ago when he began funding the Green Island
Scholarship for two freshman or sophomore students enrolled in the business program.
Though she was never able to meet him, she felt she understood what mattered to him.
“He was pragmatic,” she said. “No nonsense. He wanted things a certain way. I respected
that. He didn’t just give to his scholarship at UAF, he was very involved in making
sure
it supported the kind of motivated student he was interested in helping, not necessarily
with the best GPA.”
Pruitt’s passion was supporting hard-working, nontraditional students. Tragis-McCook
said UAF prepared him for the successful career he had in the oil industry, and for
that he was thankful. Through his giving, Pruitt wanted to recreate the type of experience
he had at UAF and to offer a chance for students to shape their lives in the way he
had.
“He had very good memories of his time at UAF,” she said. “He worked while he went
to school, so he was one of our nontraditional students at a time many students did
not work. It was important to him that his scholarship students worked in the summer
to off set educational expenses. He wanted to support industrious students who took
part in financing their own education.”
While the bulk of his gift established the James Pruitt Endowed Chair of Management,
the remainder represents the largest gift UAFAA has received to date. Thanks to his
generosity, the alumni association will be able to increase its support for projects
on campus that directly benefit students. With the Pruitt gift, the UAFAA board of
directors quickly established a unique funding source for students, one not based
on grades or designated to a specific field of study. They hoped this Student Support
Fund could make the difference between a student dropping out and being able to stay
in school.
As James Pruitt might have put it, it's a hand up rather than a hand out. Vice Chancellor
of Student Affairs and Athletics Keith Champagne had outlined the need for a fund
like this when he arrived on campus in 2018.
“Today’s college students are very different than those who went to school 10, 20
or 30 years ago,” he said. “These students are connected. They are connected to the
internet and to their parents. They are dealing with the transformation of a society.
They are the first to spend their whole lives in the internet age.”
Champagne said students have more life choices than ever before. Choices regarding
work, family and school often mean forgoing a college education for something more
immediate when hardship arises. And that means the university needs to adapt to continue
to be relevant to this generation.
Kaydee Van Flein, associate director of the Center for Student Rights and Responsibilities,
has seen this unfold in real life. She’s seen students struggle when, after a death,
they juggle classes and travel expenses to be with family as part of the grieving
process. She also knows what it’s like to watch a student get out of a domestic violence
situation with no place to go and then try to manage being both homeless and a full-time
student.
These challenges are real. And with planned increases in tuition costs, along with
rising prices for housing, meals, supplies, textbooks and transportation, many students
often work full-time jobs to cover the costs of attending a university. The university
uses its Care Team, a group of staff and faculty members, to support students. Students
referred to the team are given assistance and resources to help ensure they stay in
school and graduate.
“The Student Support Fund will assist students who experience extenuating circumstances
that impact their ability to focus on their classes,” Van Flein said. “A fund like
this, when they have exhausted all other options, could be the difference between
graduation and never returning to school.”
Since its establishment in the spring of 2019, the fund has already been put to good
use. One graduate student who experienced a medical emergency used it to pay for required
air ambulance services to Anchorage for surgery. The student said the gift did more
than cover the necessities, it helped make an extremely stressful situation easier
to get through.
“There are many people like me who don’t have much immediate support available to
them,” he said. “Having this resource available to students helps to create a sense
of community and makes UAF a much better place.”
Support for the fund is already growing. Chancellor Dan White has designated the proceeds
from this year’s Blue and Gold Celebration to benefit the Student Support Fund.
Tragis-McCook said Pruitt would have been supportive, too. “Oh, yes, the Student Support
Fund is ideal. He would have supported a fund that benefits students in need. Students
who are struggling but are willing to keep going and not give up. He would be very
pleased.”