Greensboro, N.C. ? Former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole will lead a $50 million fund-raising campaign for struggling Bennett College, a move resulting from his wife’s campaign stop last year at the school.

Bennett College President Johnnetta Cole introduced Dole as chairman of the campaign Thursday in Washington. The campaign is the largest ever for Bennett, a private college for black women.

Dole, 79, will help Cole and Bennett graduates raise $50 million during the next four years, the length of Cole’s expected tenure at the school.

Dole, the former Republican senator from Kansas and presidential candidate, led the recent efforts that raised $192 million for the national World War II memorial that will be dedicated next year in Washington.

“That was a little different,” Dole, who served and was wounded in the war, said in a telephone interview Thursday. “We had a bigger alumni group.”

Cole and Dole will work together on the Bennett project, thanks to Elizabeth’s Dole visit on Sept. 18 of last year to the college.

As Elizabeth Dole left the Bennett campus that day, she turned to Cole and said she wanted to do something to help Bennett.

At the urging of Elizabeth Dole, who now represents North Carolina in the Senate, Bob Dole called Cole a month later, and offered his assistance.