A hedge-fund billionaire announced on Sept. 30 he is making a $3 billion donation to Carnegie Mellon University, describing it as the largest such gift in this history of U.S. higher education.
The money from Citadel founder and CEO Ken Griffin will be used to build a new Carnegie Mellon campus in Miami and support initiatives at its main Pittsburgh campus, including hiring leading academics and making the school more affordable for students, according to an announcement from the university and Griffin.
Griffin donated $2 billion to launch a new South Florida campus, and Carnegie Mellon President Farnam Jahanian said $1 billion is earmarked for the Pittsburgh campus' computer science school – which will be renamed the Kenneth C. Griffin School
of Computer Science – and other priorities, including financial aid.
"This is the largest single investment in higher education in the history of the United States," Griffin told Reuters. "It is the investment in excellence."
“We are deeply grateful to Ken Griffin for his extraordinary vision, partnership and belief in what Carnegie Mellon can achieve,” Jahanian said.
Where will new CMU campus be in Miami?
The university said in a news release that its Miami campus will be built in the city's Wynwood neighborhood. The location is just a few miles north of the city's Brickell neighborhood, where Griffin's hedge fund Citadel is headquartered.
Construction of the Miami campus is expected to begin in 2027 and would see the first students enrolling in 2028.
Upon completion, the campus would "support more than 3,500 undergraduate, master's and PhD students," as well as "nearly 300 faculty and over 600 staff members," according to the university announcement.
The release says that CMU Miami will organize "learning and inquiry around societal challenges rather than academic majors alone," according to the university, with focuses on "health and biological discovery," "national security and strategic capabilities" and "energy and climate resilience."
Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on Twitter @nataliealund. Sarah Perkel is a South Florida Connect Reporter for the USA TODAY Network's Florida Connect team.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Carnegie Mellon gets $3B donation, largest in US history
