FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Larry Ellison, Chairman and CEO of Oracle Corporation, the world's leading supplier of software for information management, announced that Oracle has donated software and curriculum, valued at $7.078 million, to the Information Technology Research Center (ITRC) in the Sam M. Walton College of Business, University of Arkansas.

"This grant represents Oracle’s ongoing commitment to education and helping universities equip students with industry-relevant skills," said Ellison. He made the announcement in the Reynolds Center on the University of Arkansas campus before a crowd of students, faculty, staff and business people.

Bill Hardgrave, executive director of the Information Technology Research Center, said, "We are very grateful to Oracle and Mr. Ellison for this generous gift. Oracle database software helps customers manage information for critical business decisions and will enable our students to gain real-world experience in data warehousing and data mining. Hands-on access to leading- edge technology will prepare our graduates to be immediately valuable to their employers and helps our faculty to produce world-class research."

Doyle Z. Williams, dean of the Walton College, said, "This wonderful gift from Oracle supports one of our key objectives in providing students with the kind of experience that prepares them for a lifetime of learning.

"The gift is significant in another way in that it puts the Walton College over its original Campaign for the Twenty-First Century goal of $100 million," added Williams.

UA Chancellor John A. White said, "An internationally competitive corporation like Oracle knows that a top-notch education and the availability of state-of-the-art technology go hand-in-hand in preparing students to enter the workforce. We're grateful for Oracle's generous gift, and to Larry Ellison, for the support it will provide to University of Arkansas students and faculty through the availability of valuable technology. This gift also supports our vision of being a nationally competitive, student-centered research university serving Arkansas and the world. Possessing the technology makes us nationally competitive; incorporating it in our teaching is student-centered; and making it available for database research is consistent with our research university mission."

The Oracle gift includes the Oracle9i Database, iDS, iAS, diagnostics, and tuning and change management tools. The package also includes data mining and data warehousing software, which will be used as part of the Information Systems department’s business intelligence and enterprise systems curricula. 

Fred Davis, David Glass Chair in Information Systems and chair of the Information Systems department said, "This gift will greatly enhance the 'enterprise computing’ focus of our curriculum. The software will be used in our database, business intelligence and decision support systems courses. Our objective with this curriculum is to produce a breed of professionals who can thrive in an increasingly complex IT environment.

 "We use a variety of industry standard technology in our curriculum," Davis added. "With Oracle’s database software and related tools, we can now expose our students to an even broader range of technology. This real-world breadth and depth will help our students to deliver immediate value in the workplace."

In 2000, IBM, Wal-Mart and NCR donated hardware, software and services to the Walton College, the College of Engineering and the Graduate School. The objective of these multi-million dollar gifts was to set up systems on which students and faculty could learn about large-scale corporate computing through an enterprise computing curriculum in the Walton College’s information systems department. These resources, including the Oracle gift, are now helping the students better understand how data warehousing, e-commerce and other systems work together.

Davis said, "The Oracle gift helps set the Walton College and the University of Arkansas apart from other institutions by supporting our commitment to cutting-edge technology and 'industrial strength’ enterprise computing education."

Sometimes termed larger-than-life by the press, Ellison is known for being ahead of his time in realizing the potential of relational databases, predicting the Internet would "change everything," and declaring that integrated software suites beat best-of-breed implementations.

In September 2003, Oracle Corporation joined the ITRC as its latest corporate member, represented by Bill Weils, senior director for Global IT. Weils joined the ITRC’s board of advisors, which includes 15 other top IT professionals from state, national and international organizations. Oracle’s membership on the board expands its representation in the key area of IT computer infrastructure.

Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL), with over 40,000 employees worldwide, is the world’s leading provider of enterprise software. Oracle technology can be found in nearly every industry around the world and in the offices of 98 of the Fortune 100 companies. The company's revenue for fiscal 2003 totaled $9.475 billion.

The ITRC was established in the Walton College in 1999 with a portion of the endowment created by the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation gift of $50 million in 1998. The ITRC provides a forum for multi-disciplinary work on issues related to information technology, facilitates the exchange of information between the academic and business communities, and promotes student interest in the study of information technology.

The Oracle gift counts toward the University of Arkansas’ $300 Million Challenge, the campaign-within-the Campaign for the Twenty-First Century to raise $300 million for academic purposes to match the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation’s $300 million gift. Challenge funds must be raised between Jan. 1, 2002, and June 30, 2005, the end of the Campaign. As of Oct. 31, 2003, the Challenge total stands at $141.2 million, and the overall Campaign total stands at $770.4 million.

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