President Barron confirmed his commitment to mental health funding at Penn State last week by detailing $705,000 in annual contributions to Counseling and Psychological Services in a sort of “matching” with the Student Fee Board‘s contribution. Barron announced today at the Board of Trustees meeting that these funds come from Big Ten media rights contracts and from Penn State’s corporate partnership with Barnes & Noble.

“For almost two years, the Big Ten has had a hard start on negotiating the media rights extension,” Barron said. “Those negotiations will continue and I’m not going to make any comments about where we are. I do know that this institution will have enough of an increase that we will from the Big Ten media rights begin to contributed a substantial number of dollars to the overall success of Penn State.”

Beginning July 1, $4 Million from new media rights contracts will be available to support different Penn State endeavors like CAPS.

As promised, $450,000 will be earmarked for CAPS to provide mental health services for students. The additional funds for CAPS will come from an endowment created from “corporate donations,” which Barron announced will come from a Barnes & Noble partnership at today’s Board of Trustees meeting.

“I think this will be a substantial impact on our ability to serve the mental health needs of our students,” he said. “I’m quite excited about it.”

These funds will also support other university initiatives, including the Blue Band and the Arts & Arboretum Complex that’s in the works for the current location of the Arboretum.

• $250,000 (increasing to $500,000) to Blue Band to defray costs
• $2.0 Million annual contribution to match gifts for the Arts & Arboretum Complex

Additional funding opportunities may arise in years two through six of the contract.

• up to $500k to match gifts supporting innovation projects under the Impact the World campaign theme
• up to $500k to match gifts supporting student success through the Open Doors or Transformative Experiences campaign themes

“Funding will begin near $1M and increase rapidly to a total of $4M per year creating a powerful impact at Penn State based on the success of Intercollegiate Athletics,” Barron said.