A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle:
University of California at Berkeley
An anonymous donor has given $252 million to the university’s $6 billion capital campaign. The anonymous gift will support the construction of a new Data Hub for the Division of Computing, Data Science, and Society. The Data Hub will be a multidisciplinary center that uses data analysis to inform policy ideas in biomedicine, climate science, sustainability, and other key societal issues.
In addition, the university has received $50 million from Gordon Rausser, the former dean of the College of Natural Resources. The college will be renamed for him. His gift will endow a chair in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics and create an endowed fund to enhance the curriculum, student support, and field education abroad for the master of development practice program.
Rausser was a professor of agricultural and resource economics at Berkeley for more than 40 years, in addition to working in venture capital, consulting, and his personal investments. He also served as chief economist of the U.S. Agency for International Development under President Ronald Reagan.
Stanford University School of Medicine
John Arrillaga committed $55 million in a challenge gift to eliminate medical-school loans for incoming students with demonstrated financial need. The increased financial aid will cover both living expenses and tuition, and aims to enable students to graduate debt free.
Arrillaga co-founded Peery-Arrillaga, a real-estate development firm in Palo Alto, Calif. He received financial aid as a student-athlete before he graduated from Stanford in 1960. His previous gifts to his alma mater include $151 million in 2013, and $100 million in 2006 for academic programs.
Plus: See a Chronicle article about how billionaire Robert Smith hopes to inspire and facilitate a wave of giving to address student debt.
University of St. Thomas
The St. Paul university received a bequest of $20 million from Irvin Kanthak to create a scholarship program to reduce tuition costs and room-and-board expenses for approximately 30 undergraduate students per year. The university has a new on-campus residency requirement for first- and second-year students, and the scholarship will partially cover residential expenses during those years in addition to tuition.
Kanthak attended the university on the G.I. Bill after serving in the U.S. Air Force; he graduated in 1959. He made his fortune by investing in apartment buildings and other real estate in Los Angeles. Kanthak died last year at age 86.
Texas Women’s Foundation
Lisa Simmons and Serena Simmons Connelly gave $10.5 million to open a donor-advised fund in honor of the $36 million foundation investing its assets — including its endowments, operating investments, and donor-advised funds — in a gendered-impact portfolio of businesses that are owned by or benefit women. The sisters said in a statement that they will direct their new fund to support efforts that work toward gender equality and economic opportunities for women and girls.
Simmons and Connelly are heiresses who jointly control the Contran Corporation, a Dallas holding company that was founded by their late father, the billionaire Harold Simmons. It has investments in chemicals, metals, waste management, computer-support systems, wire products, and other companies. Simmons is president of the Harold Simmons Foundation, where Connelly is director of philanthropy.
University of Michigan
Ron Weiser, a regent and alumnus, donated $10 million to create a real-estate center at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business that will focus on practical courses in areas including finance, law, investing, asset and property management, and sustainable development. Weiser is the founder of McKinley Associates, a real-estate investment firm in Ann Arbor, Mich.
The HistoryMakers
Ursula Burns has donated $1 million for the WomanMakers program, which will develop an oral archive by recording the stories of African American women. A committee that includes the actress Anna Deavere Smith and the lawyer Anita Hill will select the 180 women who will be recorded, telling their life stories.
Burns was chair and CEO of Xerox from 2009 until 2016. She was the first black woman to lead a Fortune 500 company.
To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated throughout the week.
