IN our issue of Nov. 8, 1963, we ' ran a story about Miles College, a small Negro institution on the outskirts of Birmingham, Ala., so strapped that it had to stop watering its lawn for fear it would run up too big a water bill. Its buildings were inadequate and shabby, it lacked accreditation, and prejudice was blocking attempts at self-improvement. Miles, the only four-year college available to most of the 4,000 Negro students who graduate from Birmingham's high schools each year, was, to put it bluntly, in big trouble.

How has Miles fared since then?

While the impact of our major stories, such as the cover and Essay, are well known, even we were somewhat surprised at the scope of the reaction to that 100-line story in the Education section. "Nothing has ever happened to Miles," says President Lucius Pitts, "that was as beneficial as the article in TIME" Soon after the story appeared, Miles began receiving contributions from all over the world. Kenneth Montgomery, a Chicago attorney, was so moved by the school's plight that he sent Pitts a check for $15,000. Residents of Bombay, India, raised $800 for the college, and readers in Paris chipped in with $500. At last count, the unsolicited individual contributions included well over $100,000 in cash and 40,000 books for the library.

Foundations, which had shied away from contributing to an unaccredited institution, began to change their minds. The Field Foundation, for example, donated $132,000 for an English reading program. Even a group of wealthy and powerful people in Birmingham who had been prejudiced against the school had some second thoughts and contributed $90,000. Most important of all, as far as President Pitts is concerned, is the fact that TIME introduced Miles to the world. Says he: "The story gave us an image that we couldn't have got if we'd hired McCann-Erickson."

The result of all this is that since the autumn of 1963, Miles has raised and spent $1,250,000 on capital improvements. A student union and cafeteria building have been completed, a science building constructed at a cost of $500,000, and one of the school's old structures rehabilitated for $100,000.

While Miles's need is still great, its gains are accumulating. With the construction of needed buildings, the improvement of the library, the addition of Ph.D.s to the faculty (15 as compared with only seven three years ago), and a student body increased from 810 to 944, the school has high hopes of finally gaining accreditation. A committee will visit the campus in October as a first step toward that long-sought-after goal. "I don't think we'd even get this visit," says Pitts, "if TIME hadn't put us on the map."

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