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HOUGHTON -- Philanthropic support continues to help Michigan Tech survive the tough economic times.

Alumnus David House presented a check for one million dollars to the Board of Control on Thursday morning, which will be used to fund a new professorship in computer engineering.

House also gave money to renovate the school's Electrical Energy Resource Center, and he isn't the only donor.

"The big announcement today was that we'll be entering the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference with women's soccer," said President Glenn Mroz.  "We couldn't be more pleased to be able to do that and to have a donor step forward to support that."

Finances are stable as is Tech's retention rate of first year students which remained at 81.9 percent this year.

What’s more, the university has continued to surpass its goal to reach 7,000 students enrolled by 2010 and has already met its ACT goal for 2012 with current students averaging a score of 26.

"It bodes well for Michigan Tech.  It shows we're attracting scholarly, bright students, which we're very proud of, and they're the type of students that do incredibly well at Tech," said Les Cook, V.P. of Student Affairs.

With everything going so well, the board gave a glowing review of the work done by President Glenn Mroz.

"I’d venture to say that the Michigan Tech Board of Control truly believes that it has the best president of any university and we're very pleased," said Russell Gronevelt, chair of the Board.

Gronevelt also says that Tech's success allows them to plan more capital growth for the university.  This includes projects like construction of a new apartment complex, which will be geared towards grad students and helping Tech offer an even better academic experience.