| Kali Prasad |
Posted
on 03-May-01 06:23 PM
SOURCE: CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION
www.chronicle.com
Hewlett Foundation's $400-Million Gift to Stanford Is Largest Ever
By JOHN L. PULLEY
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation has pledged $400-million to Stanford University, the largest gift ever to an American institution of higher education, university officials announced Wednesday.
The money will bolster Stanford's endowment for humanities, sciences, and undergraduate education.
Three-fourths of the gift will support Stanford's School of Humanities and Sciences in the form of unrestricted endowment, endowed professorships, and endowed undergraduate fellowships.
The remaining $100-million pushes the university closer to the $1-billion goal it has set for a continuing campaign to raise money for undergraduate education. Half of that money has been designated for endowed undergraduate scholarships; the remaining $50-million will pay for new undergraduate programs, such as an effort to limit the size of seminars and a series of independent research projects, aimed at fostering partnerships between undergraduate students and faculty mentors.
The gift is the 36th one totaling $100-million or more that has been pledged to a single college or university. All but three of those gifts have been announced since 1990. In 1999, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation pledged $1-billion, over 20 years, for scholarships that benefit minority students attending institutions throughout the country.
The latest megagift is a "tribute" to William R. Hewlett, who established the foundation in 1966, said his son, Walter B. Hewlett, the foundation's chairman. The gift also reflects the elder Hewlett's "passionate belief in the value of a liberal-arts education," said Walter Hewlett, whose father died in January.
In 1934, William Hewlett earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Stanford, where he met his lifelong friend and business partner, David Packard. They founded Hewlett-Packard in 1936. Not including Wednesday's pledge, the two men and their family foundations have given Stanford almost $400-million, said John B. Ford, the university's vice president for development.
Wednesday's announcement confirms that Stanford's development office is on a roll. During the 1999-2000 academic year, the university raised $580.5-million, believed to be the most ever raised by a college or university in a single year. Stanford's take was almost $100-million more than the total raised by Harvard University, which typically sets the fund-raising pace.
As recently as last month, though, Mr. Ford predicted that the university's current-year fund raising would fall short of last year's total by as much as $100-million, noting that new pledges began slowing in January. Fund-raising experts blame the downturn on a tepid economy and market doldrums created by the implosion, last year, of the technology sector.
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