TIAA has announced a $1.5 million scholarship endowment for students at Howard University, Washington, in honor of Roger W. Ferguson Jr., the organization's former president and CEO.
"Roger was a special leader," said Michael McPherson, president of the TIAA Board of Governors, in an interview, noting that Mr. Ferguson grew up near the university. "It was his backyard."
Although Mr. Ferguson didn't graduate from Howard, some of his family members did, Mr. McPherson said. Mr. Ferguson earned a bachelor's degree in 1973, a law degree in 1979 and a doctorate in 1981, all from Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.
Mr. McPherson said the Roger W. Ferguson Jr.-TIAA Scholarship Fund has special provisions. It is designed to aid students "who made a good start" at the university — namely sophomores, Mr. McPherson said. "This isn't a recruiting endowment," he said.
The scholarship will begin in the 2022-2023 academic year for sophomores and pay up to $20,000 for tuition and fees each year through graduation for at least three students, said a joint news release from TIAA and the university. Recipients must remain "on track to graduate in four years" and maintain a minimum 2.5 grade point average, the news release said.
This endowment also enables the university's Graduation Retention Access to Continued Excellence program, a financial aid program for students who are most in need of assistance, "to live in perpetuity" and will be named the Ferguson-TIAA GRACE Scholars program, the news release said.
"Mr. Ferguson has been a pillar in our society and through many of his deeds has been a voice for those less fortunate," Wayne A.I. Frederick, the university president, said in the news release. " It is fitting to have his name and this resource associated with the provision of opportunity for those who otherwise wouldn't have it," Mr. Frederick said,
Mr. Ferguson was president and CEO of TIAA from 2008 to 2021, when he retired. He was succeeded by Thasunda Brown Duckett.
Among his earlier achievements, Mr. Ferguson was a governor of the Federal Reserve Board and later, vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.
