By Sande Gray

Verizon's Russ Kesler presents
check to UK President Lee Todd

"Verizon has a long tradition of corporate partnership with the University of Kentucky. For today's institutions of higher education, partners such as Verizon not only bring energy, perspective and support to important research initiatives, they also directly contribute to the vitality of the educational experience of our students."

-- Lee T. Todd Jr., president, University of Kentucky.

March 12, 2002 (Lexington, Ky.) -- Verizon officials have presented the fourth installment of a gift totaling $1.5 million to the University of Kentucky. UK President Lee T. Todd Jr. accepted the $300,000 installment during a meeting at his office.

The gift was presented by Russ Kesler, Verizon Enterprise Solutions Group vice president/general manager - southeast. Of the $1.5-million gift, $900,000 qualified for the state's Research Challenge Trust Fund, bringing the total value of the Verizon gift to $2.4 million.

"Verizon has a long tradition of corporate partnership with the University of Kentucky," said Todd. "For today's institutions of higher education, partners such as Verizon not only bring energy, perspective and support to important research initiatives, they also directly contribute to the vitality of the educational experience of our students."

"Verizon is proud to be associated with the University of Kentucky, and this gift is a way of demonstrating our commitment to technology research at a premiere institution," said Kesler.

The $1.5 million Verizon gift established an endowed chair in Network Engineering and contributed to building UK's James F. Hardymon Center for Networking Excellence, a facility designed to answer academic and public networking needs.

"Today, leadership in knowledge discovery, dissemination and preservation is truly linked to technology," said Eugene R. Williams, UK vice president for fiscal affairs and information technology. "With the help of technology, scholars, students, researchers - people from all disciplines and perspectives - routinely and conveniently collaborate to share information and ideas, regardless of their geographic location. And, this is just the beginning."