York gets big prestigious gift

Some gifts come in the form of items - while others in the form of a person, as in the case of Jamaica’s York College.
York recently received a large undisclosed amount of money from the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) to hire a professor who will teach a branch of accounting known as fraud examination and who will stay at the college indefinitely.
Ed Rhodes, the acting executive director of York College Foundation, which handles donations to the college, explained that the ACFE does not want to publicize the amount of the gift, which is called an endowment, but he specified that it is a six-figure sum.
The ACFE awarded the professorship endowment to York as part of its efforts to encourage anti-fraud education and research in higher learning institutions around the world. This is the first such gift awarded by the ACFE to any college or university.
“An endowment faculty position is a great honor,” Rhodes said about the gift, which York received in September. “This is the kind of thing that you strive for. It doesn’t happen every day,” he added, explaining that York hasn’t had endowed faculty positions before.
Rhodes said that having this fraud examination faculty member, who will be hired in the coming months, will also add to the existing anti-fraud course offerings at York, located at 94-20 Guy Brewer Boulevard.
“This endowment for anti-fraud education at York College will lay the foundation for generations of students to learn the skills needed to fight fraud effectively,” said Joseph Wells, founder and chairperson of ACFE. “As tomorrow’s leaders, these future fraud examiners will help safeguard the economy from the ever-present threat of fraud.”