For the next five years, Multnomah will use the largest gift in its history to improve faculty and staff salaries, Dr. Daniel Lockwood said.

On Nov. 30, Multnomah received $2.5 million from the Garrison family, long-time friends of Multnomah who passed away. Art Miles, brother-in-law of Dr. Joseph Aldrich and Dr. Tim Aldrich and the trustee of the Garrison estate, presented the money to Dr. Lockwood during Multnomah's Thanksgiving chapel.

The school cannot use any part of the $2.5 million principle, but the administration may choose how to spend the interest money.

Dr. Lockwood and the president's council recommended that the Finance Committee use the money to increase faculty and staff salaries. He said Multnomah tuition accounts for about 65 percent of professors' salaries, and room and board accounts for 10 to 15 percent. The remaining portion of the money for salaries comes from donations. "We've established benchmarks as to where our faculty and staff salaries need to be," Dr. Lockwood said. "To get to the benchmark," he said, "we'd have to raise another half a million dollars each year.

"The reason the board of trustees gave us the five-year mark is to make sure we're working to raise our donor base, so perhaps in five years, in our gifts, we will be able to support the salaries on our own.

"Our benchmarks are modest in terms of theological education. They aren't designed to make people wealthy. Our faculty sacrifices to work here," Dr. Lockwood said.