$1 MILLION CHALLENGE GRANT AND OLSSON FAMILY VISION
ESTABLISH UNIVERSITY-WIDE ETHICS PROGRAM AT UV.A. 

	CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., June 21 -- The Elis Olsson Memorial
Foundation has made a $1 million challenge grant to establish an
interdisciplinary approach to applied ethics at the University of
Virginia. 
	Sture G. Olsson, the foundation's president and a 1942
graduate of the School of Engineering and Applied Science, is
reaffirming his family's commitment to the study of ethics. The
Olsson Center for Applied Ethics at the Darden Graduate School of
Business was created by a 1966 gift from Olsson's mother, Signe M.
Olsson, whose early vision was to establish a University-wide ethics
program. The center, which was named for the family in 1987 in
recognition of its continued support, emphasizes the importance of
corporate social responsibility and the ethical implications of
business decisions and practices.	
	The foundation has specified that the pledge be designated
for three disciplines:  business, medicine and engineering.  The
Darden-based Olsson Center will receive $500,000 to expand its
studies of applied ethics to such diverse areas as biomedical
ethics, engineering, environmental studies, government, law,
medicine, philosophy, religious studies, and the sciences.  Reaching
beyond the University, the center also will develop a Summer Ethics
Institute.
	The remaining $500,000 will be divided between the School of
Engineering and Applied Science and the School of Medicine for the
creation of two chaired professorships in ethics:  in the medical
school the focus will be clinical ethics teaching and a service
program for U.Va. resident physicians and medical students; in the
engineering school the focus will be ethical issues that arise with
technological growth and industrial competition in a global
economy.  The individual schools will be charged with raising the
matching funds.
	Such a challenge is not unusual for Mr. Olsson, retired
chairman of Chesapeake Corp., and his family.  These professorships
are the eighth and ninth that the Olssons have been instrumental in
creating.  Other contributions have included support toward the
renovation of what is now the engineering school's Olsson Hall.	
	"In recent decades, few donors have done more to shape the
University than Sture Olsson and his family," said President John T.
Casteen III. "Now he's stepping forward once again to provide the
resources we need to confront the ethical challenges of contemporary
society.  Through the teaching and research funded by this gift, we
will be able to prepare new leaders to approach challenges in all
areas of their lives with the utmost integrity."  Underlining the
need for a national discussion on ethics, Casteen said the provost's
office will sponsor a new series of annual symposiums on applied
ethics.
	The gift, which was announced at the Norfolk regional
campaign kickoff for the Campaign for the University of Virginia, is
viewed by University officials as crucial to the further development
of the ethics program.  When the Olsson Center opened in 1969, the
Darden School was among the first graduate business schools in the
nation to implement a required course in ethics, and it remains a
leader in the field because of the center's work. 
	Mr. Olsson, who lives in West Point, Va., chairs the
engineering school's Richmond-area campaign.  He is a founding
sponsor of the Darden School, a past chair of the Darden School
Foundation Board of Trustees and a former member of the Alumni
Association's Board of Managers. 
###
June 20, 1996
	For more information, contact U.Va. News Services at (804)
924-7116.  Television reporters should contact our TV News Office at
(804) 924-7550.