Shelly and Kirk Morgan have given $100,000 during today’s Giving Day event to help the College of Liberal Arts continue to recruit and retain talented faculty members. The Morgans earned degrees from Ole Miss, as well as their two sons, Sam and Eddie Morgan. Photo by Bill Dabney/UM Foundation
OXFORD, Miss. – University of Mississippi alumni Kirk and Shelly Morgan, of Lexington, South Carolina, are celebrating the university’s Giving Day with a $100,000 gift to help the College of Liberal Arts recruit and retain top faculty.
Of course, the biggest beneficiaries of the Shelly and Kirk Morgan Fund for Faculty Excellence are Ole Miss students.
“We feel like we’re contributing to the quality education that Ole Miss students receive,” said Kirk Morgan, a 1980 graduate with a degree in political science. “So many people at the university and in the College of Liberal Arts, in particular, are sincerely interested in strengthening academics, attracting a diverse student body and equipping students for success.
“We’re happy to contribute meaningfully to that effort.”
The Morgans’ gift is part of Giving Day, a social media-heavy fundraising event, taking place today and Wednesday. Giving Day lasts for one day, eight hours and 48 minutes in honor of UM’s founding in 1848.
The first Giving Day at UM, in 2019, secured almost $550,000, and the event has grown since.
The Morgan family’s connections to Ole Miss run deep. Kirk and Shelly met as UM undergraduates, and Shelly Stefoniak Morgan graduated in 1981 with a degree in education. Their two sons, Sam and Eddie Morgan, earned degrees from Ole Miss in 2014 and 2007, respectively.
The couple’s gift is making a difference at the university, said Lee Cohen, UM liberal arts dean.
“The Morgans’ generous gifts to the College of Liberal Arts help ensure that Ole Miss students continue to receive the very best higher education has to offer,” Cohen said. “The Shelly and Kirk Morgan Fund for Faculty Excellence has already had a significant impact, and their continued support ensures that impact will continue for years to come.”
For more information on ways of supporting the university, go to https://give.olemiss.edu. To get an update on Giving Day, go to https://givingday.olemiss.edu.