Billionaire Nike Founder Phil Knight Announces $500 Million Gift To His Alma Mater For New Science Campus
Nike founder Phil Knight and University of Oregon President Michael Schill (Photo credit: University of Oregon)
Nike founder Phil Knight is once again giving back to his alma mater, the University of Oregon, this time with a $500 million gift announced on Tuesday, his third large promised donation to a university in the past three years.
The $500 million donation is the largest ever pledged to a public flagship university, according to the University of Oregon. The gift will be given in 10 annual installments of $50 million and will be used to create a new science center, called the Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact. The project is expected to cost more than $1 billion by the time it’s completed a decade from now. and will include three 70,000 square foot buildings with an innovation hub, research centers, labs, prototyping tools and more.
“In an age of declining public support for scientific research generally and declining public higher education support specifically, Penny and I are delighted to contribute to these critically important areas,” Knight said in a press release.
Knight graduated from the University of Oregon in 1959. While at the university, he trained under track coach Bill Bowerman, who later became his cofounder when he started Nike. Knight, who has a net worth that FORBES estimates at $24.2 billion, retired as chairman of Nike’s board in June 2016. He and his family still own about 26% of the company’s shares. Knight’s gift to his alma mater comes eight months after a $400 million gift to Stanford, where he attended business school, and a $500 million gift to the Oregon Health & Science University in 2013.
“We’re here today to make history and transform our future thanks to an unprecedented $500 million dollar gift from Penny and Phil Knight,” University of Oregon president Michael Schill said at a press conference Tuesday morning. “Yes, I said $500 million. Sometimes it trips off my tongue, but it’s $500 million. A monumental gift of philanthropy.”
Knight’s record-setting gift to Stanford earlier this year received criticism from the likes of author Malcolm Gladwell, who argued that large donations to universities with already-huge endowments have less impact than gifts to a less well-funded universities would have. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Schill brought up this point and stressed that more than a third of the University of Oregon’s undergraduate students come from low-income backgrounds. The University of Oregon has a $700 million endowment, compared to Stanford’s $22.2 billion endowment.
At the press conference, Schill focused on the positive impact the campus would have on Oregon’s economy in addition to the university. “The campus will catapult our state’s knowledge-based economy,” Schill said. “It will generate between $80 million and $100 million of economic activity state-wide. It will support between 750 and 1,000 jobs.”
The University of Oregon predicts that the new science campus will increase sponsored research activity by 30%. When completed, the campus is expected to have a full-time research staff of 300 and support 750 jobs in total. During construction, the campus will support more than 1,300 jobs. The University hopes to have the first building up and running within the next three years and expects the entire campus to be competed in a decade.
“This gift offers the university a wonderful opportunity to support regional and statewide economic development through its core mission to educate and prepare students to be Oregon’s next generation of transformational leaders,” Oregon Governor Kate Brown said in a statement.
Phil Knight has given millions to the University of Oregon over the years, including $27 million in 1994 to renovate the university’s campus library, $10 million in 1996 to the university’s law school and $15 million that same year to create endowed chairs at the university.
“It’s hard to imagine how any person or persons could have more times stepped up and voted on their confidence in this university than Phil and Penny,” said Chuck Lillis, chairman of the university’s board of trustees, at the press conference. ”When you do what they do in terms of support, you have to have very high confidence that it will yield the social and scientific returns that we think it will.”
Follow me on Twitter at @kate_vinton.
Nike founder Phil Knight and University of Oregon President Michael Schill (Photo credit: University of Oregon)
Nike founder Phil Knight is once again giving back to his alma mater, the University of Oregon, this time with a $500 million gift announced on Tuesday, his third large promised donation to a university in the past three years.
The $500 million donation is the largest ever pledged to a public flagship university, according to the University of Oregon. The gift will be given in 10 annual installments of $50 million and will be used to create a new science center, called the Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact. The project is expected to cost more than $1 billion by the time it’s completed a decade from now. and will include three 70,000 square foot buildings with an innovation hub, research centers, labs, prototyping tools and more.
“In an age of declining public support for scientific research generally and declining public higher education support specifically, Penny and I are delighted to contribute to these critically important areas,” Knight said in a press release.
Knight graduated from the University of Oregon in 1959. While at the university, he trained under track coach Bill Bowerman, who later became his cofounder when he started Nike. Knight, who has a net worth that FORBES estimates at $24.2 billion, retired as chairman of Nike’s board in June 2016. He and his family still own about 26% of the company’s shares. Knight’s gift to his alma mater comes eight months after a $400 million gift to Stanford, where he attended business school, and a $500 million gift to the Oregon Health & Science University in 2013.
“We’re here today to make history and transform our future thanks to an unprecedented $500 million dollar gift from Penny and Phil Knight,” University of Oregon president Michael Schill said at a press conference Tuesday morning. “Yes, I said $500 million. Sometimes it trips off my tongue, but it’s $500 million. A monumental gift of philanthropy.”
Knight’s record-setting gift to Stanford earlier this year received criticism from the likes of author Malcolm Gladwell, who argued that large donations to universities with already-huge endowments have less impact than gifts to a less well-funded universities would have. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Schill brought up this point and stressed that more than a third of the University of Oregon’s undergraduate students come from low-income backgrounds. The University of Oregon has a $700 million endowment, compared to Stanford’s $22.2 billion endowment.
At the press conference, Schill focused on the positive impact the campus would have on Oregon’s economy in addition to the university. “The campus will catapult our state’s knowledge-based economy,” Schill said. “It will generate between $80 million and $100 million of economic activity state-wide. It will support between 750 and 1,000 jobs.”
The University of Oregon predicts that the new science campus will increase sponsored research activity by 30%. When completed, the campus is expected to have a full-time research staff of 300 and support 750 jobs in total. During construction, the campus will support more than 1,300 jobs. The University hopes to have the first building up and running within the next three years and expects the entire campus to be competed in a decade.
“This gift offers the university a wonderful opportunity to support regional and statewide economic development through its core mission to educate and prepare students to be Oregon’s next generation of transformational leaders,” Oregon Governor Kate Brown said in a statement.
Phil Knight has given millions to the University of Oregon over the years, including $27 million in 1994 to renovate the university’s campus library, $10 million in 1996 to the university’s law school and $15 million that same year to create endowed chairs at the university.
“It’s hard to imagine how any person or persons could have more times stepped up and voted on their confidence in this university than Phil and Penny,” said Chuck Lillis, chairman of the university’s board of trustees, at the press conference. ”When you do what they do in terms of support, you have to have very high confidence that it will yield the social and scientific returns that we think it will.”
Follow me on Twitter at @kate_vinton.
