Weakley gift creates Ole Miss book fund for students
Wendell Weakley’s $50,000 gift created a new Ole Miss book endowment as textbooks average about $1,200 a year and can force students out of class.
A $50,000 gift from University of Mississippi Foundation CEO Wendell Weakley created a new book endowment at Ole Miss aimed at a cost many Lafayette County families know can hit after tuition and housing are covered: textbooks. The Weakley Family Ole Miss Opportunity Book Endowment supplements the Let’s Book It: Ole Miss Opportunity Book Fund and expands support for students in Ole Miss Opportunity, the university’s aid program for Mississippi residents with financial need.
At Ole Miss, textbooks average about $1,200 a year, and Weakley said that expense is one of the deciding factors in whether a student stays enrolled or leaves. Bay View Analytics’ National Survey on Student Course Material Affordability, based on 500 undergraduate students nationwide, found that seven in 10 students worry about paying for required course materials during the current term, and about one-third said high textbook costs led them to drop, withdraw from or fail a course.
Ole Miss Opportunity already covers the average cost of tuition, residence hall housing and an allowance for meals for eligible Mississippi residents, and for 2025-2026 it adds another $500 for books after all federal, state, institutional and private aid is counted. The program began in 2017, first serving Mississippi students with family incomes of $32,500 or below. By spring 2025, the Let’s Book It fund was supporting full-time, degree-seeking Mississippi freshmen with family incomes of $40,000 or less. Every Ole Miss Opportunity student received $500 in fall 2026 for textbooks and supplies through donor support.
Chancellor Glenn Boyce said Ole Miss wants to lead among higher education institutions by serving students who face barriers to attending college, including first-generation students and those with major financial hurdles. Ole Miss raised $1.34 million from 2,685 donors on Giving Day 2025, then a record $1,789,552 from 3,223 gifts on Giving Day 2026. In June 2025, Ole Miss said its endowment surpassed $1 billion.
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