$5 Million Gift To Endow Stedman Scholars in Great Books Program at UT Austin
The gift includes $1 million in matching funds to support the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Study of Core Texts and Ideas
Stuart W. Stedman, a longtime member of the center’s advisory board and a member of the University of Texas System Board of Regents.
The Thomas Jefferson Center for the Study of Core Texts and Ideas at The University of Texas at Austin has received a $5 million gift from Stuart W. Stedman, a longtime member of the center’s advisory board and a member of the University of Texas System Board of Regents.
Most of the gift will endow the Stedman Scholars in Great Books program, the new name of the center’s Jefferson Scholars Program. The remaining $1 million is reserved to match new gifts of $100,000 or more to the Jefferson Center.
“The Thomas Jefferson Center’s great books program is a highly selective six-course journey that requires students to deal with challenging political, philosophical and religious issues raised by some of history’s great thinkers,” said Stedman. “The program forces students of varied backgrounds to tackle those difficult texts and to discuss them in a civil manner. Civil discourse and a firm grounding in a liberal arts education is a topic du jour in higher education today. The Thomas Jefferson Center has been doing that very thing for almost 20 years, yet it stands as one of UT Austin’s best kept secrets. With my endowment gift, I want to change that.”
Founded in 2009 in the College of Liberal Arts at The University of Texas at Austin, the Jefferson Center was created to provide an intensive education for undergraduates in the great books and ideas that form the ground of western civilization. Its central offering is the Certificate Program in Core Texts and Ideas (CTI), a six-course sequence in the great books of the ancient, medieval and modern worlds. Its co-directors are Dana and Devin Stauffer, both of whom are faculty members in the Department of Government.
Any student at the University can earn the CTI certificate, but to join the Stedman Scholars in Great Books program, incoming freshmen apply before they matriculate. Those who are accepted are given priority in the courses toward the certificate and are also embedded in a vibrant community of outstanding undergraduates from disciplines throughout the University. Beyond the classroom, scholars take part in lectures, civil discourse debates, book clubs, cultural outings, and leadership and service opportunities.
“This gift is truly transformative for the Jefferson Center,” said Dana Stauffer, co-director of the Thomas Jefferson Center and associate professor of instruction in government. “It will allow us to expand programming, retain and attract top notch instructors, and bring the Stedman Scholars in Great Books the prominence it deserves as a model for great books education.”
Stedman, who has been a major supporter of the Jefferson Center for almost a decade, is president of Stedman West Interests Inc., a family investment office. He earned a B.A. in the Plan II Honors program, which is also in the College of Liberal Arts, as well as a J.D. and an MBA from UT Austin. He chaired the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board from 2019 to 2021 and was appointed to the UT System Board of Regents in 2021. He is also a former chair of the College of Liberal Arts Advisory Council.
“Stuart is one of the longstanding allies of the College of Liberal Arts, and this gift reflects the belief, which goes to the core of the study of the liberal arts, that engaging deeply with enduring ideas prepares students to think clearly and contribute to their communities,” said Daniel M. Brinks, interim dean of the College of Liberal Arts. “We are grateful to Stuart for his generosity and his vision, and we are proud to see his name attached to a program that is one of the true jewels of the college.”
“I hope this gift, and the matching challenge that comes with it, inspires others to support the center,” said Stedman, “so that students contemplating admission into UT Austin will know they can get a broad core liberal arts education comparable to any offered by the top private universities in America, regardless of their major or field of study.”
