Couple to give record $200-million gift to USC

[bmanbs2]

<p>

The University of Southern California will announce Wednesday its largest donation ever, a $200-million gift from alumnus David Dornsife, the chairman of a large steel fabricating company, and his wife, Dana.</p>

<p>The Dornsifes’ donation will go to USC’s College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, the university’s biggest academic unit, without restrictions on how it should be spent. It is expected to support faculty hiring, research and fellowships and be especially useful for the humanities and social sciences, which receive less funding than the sciences from federal and private sources.</p>

<p>USC President C. L. Max Nikias praised the donors, after whom the college will be named, for the donation’s size and its unusually open-ended nature. “Especially in the economic environment we are in, this gift makes a big statement about the importance of the humanities and social sciences in the university, not just the sciences,” he said. “It’s a very, very transformative gift.”</p>

<p>As a single donation, it beats USC’s previous record of $175 million from “Star Wars” creator George Lucas, given in 2006 to build a new home for the university’s film school, which he attended. Philanthropy experts say the Dornsife gift, along with two recent $100-million gifts to UCLA from other donors, shows that the recession’s chilling effect on college fundraising may be easing.</p>

<p>David Dornsife, 67, is chairman and majority owner of Herrick Corp., a Stockton-based firm that has fabricated steel for many of the signature skyscrapers and civic projects in Los Angeles, San Francisco and other cities. The privately held company has plants in Stockton and San Bernardino, as well as Texas, Mississippi and Thailand, and employs about 2,000 people.</p>

<p>Dornsife, a USC trustee, praised the school’s rising academic prestige and said he hopes to help “continue the momentum.”</p>

<p>A USC business major who graduated in 1965 and was a shot putter on the track team, Dornsife has deep family ties to the Los Angeles campus; both his parents were also USC alumni. And although none of their six adult children attended the school, Dana and David Dornsife say they are encouraging their eight grandchildren with gifts of Trojan sweatshirts.</p>

<p>“We are brainwashing them at an early age,” he joked.</p>

<p>In a telephone interview from their home in Danville in Northern California, the Dornsifes recalled how they had attended Nikias’ inauguration in October and heard references to several USC schools that have been named for donors, including the Viterbi School of Engineering. The couple, who have made major donations to neuroscience research at the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, began discussing how that school lacked a donor name. Campus officials then encouraged a naming donation.</p>

<p>The college has 33 academic departments, including anthropology, chemistry, English and economics. It enrolls about 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students.</p>

<p>That broad range “allows students to put more tools in their tool box and address some of the major issues in the world today,” said Dana Dornsife, 49, who is a business graduate of Drexel University in Philadelphia and has established a charity, the Lazarex Cancer Foundation, which helps cancer patients and their families through clinical trial treatments.</p>

<p>As for the gift’s lack of restrictions, the couple said they had confidence in USC faculty and administrators to spend it wisely.</p>

<p>Howard Gillman, dean of what will be the USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, said the school will establish a cash prize for outstanding seniors whose scholarly work tackles societal problems in the United States and abroad. But in general, the donation will boost the school’s endowment, while officials consider the best ways to use the money.</p>

<p>USC officials and the Dornsifes declined to provide details of the gift, such as whether it is being paid in a lump sum or over time, and whether it is all cash.</p>

<p>The single largest gift to a U.S. college or university was the $600-million pledge to Caltech in 2001 from Intel Corp. co-founder Gordon Moore, his wife Betty, and their foundation, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. More than 20 schools have received individual donations of at least $200 million over the years.</p>

<p>National fundraising experts noted that big donors usually focus on a construction project or research area, in contrast to the unrestricted Dornsife gift. “In fact, it is often the kind of gift an institution needs the most. It is both a rare thing and a good thing for the donor to have the sense of confidence in the institution making those judgments,” said Rae Goldsmith, vice president for advancement resources at the Washington, D.C.-based Council for Advancement and Support of Education.</p>

<p>Along with many universities, USC saw its endowment decline in the 2008 stock market and real estate collapse but has recovered somewhat, to $2.9 billion by last June, officials said. It is dwarfed by endowments at the wealthiest private universities, including Harvard’s $27 billion, Yale’s $16.7 billion and Stanford’s $13.8 billion.

[University</a> of Southern California: Couple to give record $200-million gift to USC - latimes.com](<a href=“http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0309-usc-gift-20110309,0,2879936.story]University”>Couple to give record $200-million gift to USC)</p>

<p>dollar dollar bills y’all</p>

[SimpleLife]

<p>^Wow. Nice!</p>

[Georgia_Girl]

<p>The Dornsife family has previously given $21 million to SC, mainly for neuroscience research.</p>

<p>This fiscal year other donations to SC were:</p>

<p>$50 million by alumnus Ming Hsieh for a multidisciplinary research institute</p>

<p>$50 million by Wallis Annenberg and the Annenberg Foundation to the Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism</p>

<p>$10 million by the Annenberg Foundation for scholarships</p>

<p>$3 million by Alfred Mann for an endowed chair for violin to the Thornton School of Music</p>

[theimage]

<p>I really hope USC continues to rise in ranking and lose the rich frat boy/partying image soon. In 10 years, can it really be considered one of the true elites? I hope so</p>

<p>Use this money wisely!</p>

[bmanbs2]

<p>I’m all for loosing the party image, as long as we keep the parties.</p>

[Georgia_Girl]

<p>Image,</p>

<p>About 60% of USC students receive financial aid. Roughly 20% receive merit aid. Some receive both.</p>

<p>After Columbia SC enrolls the largest number of Pell Grant recipients of any private university. These students have the highest financial need.</p>

<p>USC is ranked as #3 for being the most economically diverse private university.</p>

<p>Roughly 12% of the student body are from families where they are the first member to attend college.</p>

<p>SC is considered one of the most ethnically diverse universities in the nation.</p>

<p>There are wealthy students at SC. There are wealthy students at every private university in the U.S.</p>

[FindAPlace]

<p>This is huge for the college, and especially as USC has essentially free reign in how to program this special gift. The College is aglow, especially those departments that have fewer outside funding sources (the non-STEM majors, although E and T are in other colleges.)</p>

[alamemom]

<p>This is wonderful! I am very proud to be a parent of a student in The USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences!!!</p>

[beyphy]

<p>have to admit, this is very impressive. Congrats 'SC :D</p>

[Hawkwings]

<p>What a mouthful! It’s great to keep breaking records like this though! Nikias has sure got a nice start to his fundraising efforts.</p>

[Smithanan]

<p>So happy and proud to be part of the Trojan family!</p>

[madbean]

<p>Such amazing generosity. And I was interested to read that none of their 6 children attended USC. !!!</p>

[anxiousenior]

<p>@madbean - Where is the article that says that? Which colleges do they go to? In any event, it is a very generous donation.</p>

<p>Also, the whole “party school” thing is outdated, I think. Stereotypes take a while to die.</p>

[theimage]

<p>I really hate it when I mention that I go to USC, people say oh “University of Spoiled Children” in a joking manner. I know they are just joking and having fun but it bothers me when I hear that.</p>

[Georgia_Girl]

<p>Image,</p>

<p>Yes, you are so “spoiled” that 38,000 seniors hope to join you on campus next year as well as over 10,000+ transfer applicants. </p>

<pre><code>When people say that I always ask what facts do they have to back up that statement. There is usually a long pause and…silence. lol
</code></pre>

[HappyBuddha]

<p>Image, Im sure USC will continue to rise in the rankings but the party reputation - did you see the frat viral email? I mean the dude writes pretty well but the email shames USC’s reputation as a whole</p>

[bmanbs2]

<p>^ No more than the anti-Asian video from UCLA</p>

[HappyBuddha]

<p>^ lol never heard of it</p>

[superdoo1]

<p>USC should use those money to build dorms so they can accept more students :)</p>