Marty Bandier greets Syracuse students with anecdotes about Jimmy Van Heusen, Lou Reed and Dave Bing.

A gift from Marty Bandier to Syracuse University will provide a scholarship fund for students from underrepresented populations enrolled in the Bandier Program in Recording and Entertainment Industries at the upstate New York university.

Bandier’s gift will provide a half-tuition scholarship to an outstanding first-year student. The program will support five scholars over the first five years. At the same time, Bandier has established an endowed fund that will support the Bandier Scholarship program in perpetuity.

The scholarship will be awarded to one student annually and follow that student over the course of their four years in the program. The Bandier Scholarship will be among the largest single-scholarship grants offered by Syracuse University.

“Martin Bandier’s generosity will ensure students have access to the preeminent music industry program in the nation,” said Mark J. Lodato, dean of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, which houses the Bandier program. “His commitment to removing barriers to higher education is exactly what we need in this challenging time.”

Bandier is a member of the Class of ’62, or as he likes to call it, “pre-Cuban embargo, when a Cohiba Robusto cost a quarter.”