BATON ROUGE - Administrators with LSU's Manship School of Communication said two gifts totaling $2.55 million will help them transform their program.

The school announced the gifts from the Manship and Lamar families Monday. Dean Jerry Ceppos said one gift will be used to create a new position focused on race and cultural literacy in the media, and the other will increase funding for a visiting scholar position.

"An outside team of experts just described the Manship School as being in the ranks of the country's strongest mass-communication programs," Ceppos said. "These gifts guarantee that we will become even better."

The Manship Family, who own WBRZ-TV, gave a combined $1.2 million on behalf of Dina Manship Planche, Richard Manship, Douglas Manship Jr., Julia Gay, David Manship, Hunter Manship and Jake Manship. The money will complete the Douglas Manship Sr.-Dori J. Maynard Chair in Race, Media and Cultural Literacy.

"At a time when state funding is being cut continually, it is important that people step forward to help," said Richard Manship, CEO and president of Manship Media.

Charles and Carole Lamar donated another $1.35 million to increase the stipend for the Lamar Family Visiting Scholars program. The expanded program will now bring in two visiting scholars a year, one a dedicated mass communication practitioner and the other a post-doctoral researcher and teacher.

"Having two such scholars--one professional and one post-doc---working with students and faculty will greatly increase the program's impact on the school," said Charles Lamar, chairman and CEO of Woodlawn Investments and former director of Lamar Advertising.