Alexander W. Astin and Helen S. Astin, emeritus professors in UCLA's Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, announced that they have created an endowment to support two fellowships for education graduate students in the Department of Education's Division of Higher Education & Organizational Change. A $200,000 endowment will fund two fellowships of $100,000 each, in each of the Astin's names.     

The Astins are UCLA's first benefactors to respond to the recently passed federal Pension Protection Act, which enables taxpayers who are 70½ years of age or older to make tax-free charitable gifts using Individual Retirement Account (IRA) funds. Withdrawals from IRAs are generally considered taxable income; the new legislation, however, creates an exception during 2006 and 2007 that allows withdrawals to be sheltered from taxes if the funds are donated directly to qualified charities such as UCLA. 

"We hope to perpetuate study in the fields we both love, and in a way that supports student scholarship that is both interesting to them and will advance the field," Helen Astin said. "Our lives have been enriched by the generations of students we have been privileged to teach, and we are honored to have our names permanently linked with UCLA, the Graduate School of Education & Information Studies and its future higher education scholars."

"We are thrilled to dedicate these endowments to recruit or support the dissertation of graduate students of exceptional merit," the Astins said in a statement. 

The endowment is the most recent contribution among many that the Astins have made to education. Alexander Astin is the founding director of UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute, and along with his wife, co-founded the Cooperative Institutional Research Program, which recently celebrated its 40^th year of service to the field of education. The Cooperative Institutional Research Program is the nation's largest and oldest empirical study of higher education, producing the highly lauded Freshmen Survey, Your First College Year Survey and the College Senior Survey.

Helen Astin has served as associate provost of UCLA's College of Letters and Science and in leadership roles for Mount St. Mary's College, Hampshire College, the American Psychological Association and national women's research and advocacy groups.

With the permanent endowment, future generations of student scholars will help advance education as Astin Fellows at UCLA and as professionals within the field. The Graduate School of Education & Information Studies continues to seek gifts in honor of Alexander W. Astin and Helen S. Astin, to leverage their generous endowment and expand the number of students supported by fellowships.

-UCLA-

KW502