The University of North Alabama Board of Trustees named the Sanders College of Business Technology after $3.5 million was donated by the Sanders Family. 

Horace and Mary Jane Sanders owned and operated Russellville Hospital in the late 1960s and early 1970s before selling it to Humana Hospital. Throughout their lives, the family has always had a calling for helping those in need.

In a press release about the donation, Bill Sanders, their son, explained his family’s love for giving to others. 

“This gift is an opportunity to give back to the community where it all came from,” said Sanders. “The majority of the gifting my parents have made has been with Christian missions, but this was meeting a need in the Northwest Alabama area that has been very special to them.” 

Dr. Gregory Carnes, Dean of the Sanders College of Business and Technology, feels that the donation is a great honor to the college and UNA. 

“People work hard for their money, so folks who have been successful like the Sanders family obviously have a lot of wisdom, and they are excellent decision makers,” said Carnes. “They’re going to be very thoughtful about where they donate their funds to, as part of their philanthropy that they do. For them to honor the College of Business and Technology with this gift… the best word, I think, is overwhelming. From how I see it personally, I’m very grateful for the confidence that they’ve placed in the university and the college by making the gift.” 

Carnes believes that the funds will help significantly in expanding the reach of the Sanders College of Business and Technology by providing students with more opportunities to excel. 

“The core things that we do in the classroom are extremely important as part of the educational process, but they’re not sufficient today in order for students to really be prepared for their careers,” Carnes said. “They need a lot of experiential learning opportunities, and those tend to have costs that are associated with them. These types of gifts provide us the opportunity to provide those opportunities to a broader number of students than what we’ve been able to do in the past.” 

According to Carnes, donations like this gift from the Sanders family are necessary because of the state funding gap at universities across the nation. For the university to continue to offer high-quality education and opportunities, they rely heavily on friends of the university who make donations to invest in students and their future successes.

“Ultimately, the way we really benefit the region as a university is providing students who are well-qualified, that employers want to hire and that are going to be good citizens,” Carnes said. “The goal is to make sure we’re continuing to do that at an exceptional level.” 

Carnes believes that the gift is not only useful to the university monetarily, but it is also a testament to the Sanders family’s generosity. 

“They are people of outstanding integrity and character,” Carnes said. “They’re the types of people we would like our students to use as mentors. I really have enjoyed meeting the Sanders Family, and as dean of the college, I’m proud to have their name on the college, because their family embodies the types of values that we’re trying to instill in our students.”