$2.2 million BPA gift to help professors

A $2.2 million gift received by the UA business college last week will go toward faculty so the school can keep abreast of current trends, the donor said yesterday.

Norman McClelland and his wife, Frances, founders of Shamrock Foods Co., donated the money as part of an ongoing fund drive.

"The whole goal is to build an undergraduate program structure that will attract better faculty and increase the college's standing," Norman McClelland said.

McClelland, who co-chairs the fund drive, said his group plans to raise $42 million for the business college by 2001 and already has collected $24.3 million.

Professors can receive three-year renewable awards, which include a summer stipend to be used at the faculty member's discretion.

Some professors who will benefit have already been named:

• Barbara Gutek, management professor

• James LaSalle, management information systems professor

• H. Brinton Milward, public management professor

• Vernon Smith, economics professor.

Aside from faculty money, the McClelland gift will also finance a task force to streamline the college's bureaucracy. The program was ranked 20th in the nation this year.

"We don't anticipate drastic changes, just more creative and incremental ones," said Mark Zupan, dean of the College of Business and Administration.

The McClellands, both University of Arizona alumni, also donated $2.5 million in 1990 to help construct the business college's later-named McClelland Hall.