One of the United States' largest energy companies continues to support OSU and its potential employees.

ConocoPhillips gave its annual gift of $2 million to OSU at the beginning of the month.

This marks the seventh annual donation of that amount since the company's merger in 2002.

ConocoPhillips recommended for allocating $1 million to the ConocoPhillips OSU Alumni Center, $350,000 to the SPIRIT Scholars Program, $225,000 to Spears School of Business, $192,000 to diversity programs;,$70,000 for other support and $45,000 to the College of Arts and Sciences.

OSU will follow the recommendations, said Becky Endicott, senior director of marketing and communications at the OSU Foundation, in a phone interview.

"If a donor gives us a recommendation as to where they would like to see the funds go, we typically like to designate it in those specific areas," she said.

The SPIRIT Scholars Program offers students in business administration, engineering, science and geoscience up to $5,000 per semester. The program awards 20-25 scholarships each year, said Jeretta Horn Nord, Spears School of Business coordinator for the SPIRIT program.

"ConocoPhillips has been very proactive with working with our students as far as activities and programs to help them develop," Nord said in a phone interview. "Many students have internship and employment opportunities with ConocoPhillips."

Based in Houston, Texas, ConocoPhillips is the third-largest integrated energy company in the United States, with assets of $143 billion, according to its Web site.

In 2008, the OSU Foundation received $165 million, the most it accrued in the past four years, Endicott said in an e-mail. Donations have decreased since the economic recession.

An exact figure will not be known until the OSU Foundation's finances are audited at the end of June. A detailed list of audited finances will be available within the annual report in the fall on the Foundation Web site, http://www.OSUgiving.com.

"Like the majority of nonprofits and university foundations, we anticipate a decline in total giving for the fiscal year but remain optimistic ... a strong majority of OSU donors continue to support the university through good times and bad," Endicott said.

Many areas around campus could benefit from additional funds, Endicott said, but the areas ConocoPhillips recommended compliment the company.

"ConocoPhillips hires a lot of our business graduates, our engineering graduates, our geology students through the College of Arts and Sciences," Endicott said. "They are huge proponents of diversity, and their donations in those allocations really express priorities within their company.

"In good times and in bad, they not only support the university through gifts, but they continue to hire our grads and are building programs to build leaders on campus."