The National Endowment for the Humanities named MSU a recipient of the $500,000 challenge grant to help fund the LeFrak Forum.

MSU is one of 17 grant recipients across the country.

The LeFrak Forum, founded in 1989 and also known as the Symposium on Science, Reason and Modern Democracy, is a privately funded research center at MSU.

The center explores the theory and practice of modern democracy by sponsoring lectures, conferences, publications, and academic fellowships.

The LeFrak Forum, a project of MSU's political science department, has sponsored more than 200 lectures at MSU and has participated in more than a dozen international conferences.

The grant is expected to continuously improve the program, which has benefited the MSU community, LeFrak Director and political science Professor Arthur Melzer said.

MSU, however, has to raise $1.5 million by 2008 to meet the three-to-one requirement of the grant.

Melzer said there is $1 awarded for every $3 raised.

NEH is an independent grant-making agency of the U.S. government that supports the study of humanities.

The Challenge Grant is awarded twice a year.