U of M ag school gets $12M bequest

The University of Minnesota has received a large and unexpected bequest from a South Dakota farmer and businesswoman.

The $12.3 million gift from Millicent Atkins will go to the university's College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences.

Dean Allen Levine says it's the largest single gift ever designated for the college. And he says Atkins entrusted the college to use the money as it sees fit. He says the school expects to use it to increase support for undergraduate and graduate students.

The university says Atkins owned more than 4,000 acres of prime farmland near Aberdeen, S.D., before she died last July at 93. She made similar bequests to Northern State University in Aberdeen and the Congregational Church in Columbia, S.D., where she lived most of her life.