In one of the more substantial gifts to Howard Community College, a Baltimore-based financial-services company is donating $40,000 for technology equipment just as the campus is building laboratories that it will need to fill with computers and other tools.
For HCC, the gift packs a double punch because the donation by Allfirst Bank will be matched by the state's Innovative Partnership for Technology Program, company and college officials said.
HCC administrators, who will announce the gift Wednesday in a computer lab on campus, haven't earmarked the money for specific equipment. They say they will buy cutting-edge equipment to help train people for high-tech jobs.
"This is not only helping the students; this is contributing to the local economic development," said Randy Bengfort, HCC's spokesman. "It's doing the community a service as well as the college."
HCC President Mary Ellen Duncan, who was out of town Friday, said in a statement that preparing students for the ever-changing high-tech work force is one of the biggest challenges faced by higher education.
Allfirst's policy is to funnel contributions to education and economic development causes, said Philip Hosmer, a company spokesman. "This fits in really well with our strategy," he said.
For HCC, this is a good time to receive money for technology. This summer, construction began on a classroom building that will include technology labs. The building is scheduled to open in two years.
Officials are developing a degree program for photonics, a high-tech communications field, and will offer noncredit classes in photonics training in the fall.
Faced with a lengthening wish list, HCC's fund-raisers are planning a campaign to raise millions of dollars for the 31-year-old campus, which received a little less than $700,000 in gifts during the 2000 fiscal year.
Ellicott City residents Pete and Beth Horowitz recently pledged $500,000, the largest single contribution in the college's history.
