Hampton University president Dr. William R. Harvey and his wife Norma B. Harvey donated an unprecedented gift of $553,000 to the institution’s faculty and staff this month, continuing their years of generosity to the university.
The Harvey’s gift comes in the form of a one percent additional raise on top of the optional annual increase given to faculty and staff at the start of each fiscal year. This latest gift to their “Home by the Sea” brings their institutional philanthropy to nearly $4.2 million.
“Our Hampton community is a family. Ensuring each faculty and staff member receives what they are due is extremely important to me,” Dr. Harvey said of the gift. “We all work very hard to make Hampton University a dynamic and respected leader in higher education. With the help of everyone who gives so much to the campus, we have been able to become one of the top modest-sized institutions in the world.”
Harvey has served as president of Hampton for 40 years. In this capacity, he and his wife of 52 years have donated to the university to support students, faculty and staff in various ways.
Gifts over the years have included a $1-million donation to incentivize faculty’s salary increases. Two gifts of $166,000 and $108,403 supported wage increases for Hampton’s full-time permanent staff. Another $1-million gift in 2001 went towards scholarships supporting Hampton students interested in becoming K-12 teachers.
Tiffany Pennamon can be reached at [email protected]