$125,000 for 125 Years: Gift Establishes Cardinal Scholarship Fund

The DCAA is pleased to announce the creation of the Daily Cardinal Scholarship Fund. The endowed fund was made possible by a $125,000 gift, the largest single gift in Cardinal history, from Herman Baumann, current president of the Daily Cardinal's board, and his wife, Kay Schwichtenberg.

“The Daily Cardinal had a huge impact on my education and career, and we wanted to honor the 125th anniversary of the newspaper, so we created the scholarship fund," said Baumann. "The cost of education is growing faster than students' ability to pay for it, so scholarships are a good way to help out."

The scholarships are exclusively for students who work for The Daily Cardinal. An initial $15,000 of the total will be used to fund scholarships and the newspaper's summer advertising internship program in 2016, and the balance will remain in the endowment, Baumann said.

The DCAA plans to raise $15,000 to bring the endowment back to its original total by April 1, 2017, the date of the Cardinal's 125th anniversary celebration in Madison, according to Anthony Sansone, president of the DCAA.

“The Daily Cardinal is an outstanding career development platform and we wanted to enhance those capabilities," Schwichtenberg said. "Cardinal alumni have earned not just Pulitzers and Emmys but have excelled in law, advertising, medicine, marketing, academia and business. We know working at the Cardinal brings out the best in students. It can produce the next generation of attorneys, doctors, professors, marketers, business leaders and journalists."

"This is a wonderful gift, and we hope it encourages other Cardinal alumni to support the Daily Cardinal," Sansone said.

"We really appreciate Herman and Kay's generosity," said Jim Dayton, current Cardinal editor-in-chief. "This endowment will help support the many talented people on our staff and allow the Cardinal to flourish for years to come."

"In the past few years students have dramatically improved the financial position of the paper and upgraded technology," Baumann said. The future is bright, and we are honored to be able to support the Daily Cardinal."

Baumann added, "We should keep in mind that a strong and impartial news media is critical to the efficient functioning of our democracy. The Cardinal, and student media in general, are the irreplaceable training grounds for the next generation of 'watchdogs'."