Ross Makes Record Gift to Michigan

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The New York Sun

Stephen Ross, a premier city real estate developer and philanthropist, has donated a record-breaking $100 million to the business school of his former alma mater, the University of Michigan.

The gift is the biggest in the school’s 187-year history, and a sum larger than the gross domestic products of Lithuania, Costa Rica, and Kenya combined.

The money is designated to boost the school’s endowment, while adding more interdisciplinary business programs.

“The days at U-M laid the foundation of my career,” said Mr. Ross, 64, in a statement. “It is gratifying to provide a gift that will have an enduring impact on the university’s ability to be the world’s foremost business school.”

Mr. Ross graduated from the university in 1962 with a degree in accounting and now runs the Related Companies, a national real estate firm that estimates its portfolio at $8 billion, including the glassy, recently opened Time Warner Center shopping mall at Columbus Circle.

Mr. Ross also is on the executive committee of NYC2012, which hopes to lure the Olympic games to New York, and is a trustee of the Guggenheim Museum. He also has a reputation of supporting other civic-minded committees, such as the United Jewish Appeal Federation of New York.

In addition to faithfully giving to his alma mater, Mr. Ross has been generous with Democratic politicians, giving the maximum $4,950 to the upcoming mayoral campaigns of the city comptroller, William Thompson Jr., and $1,000 to City Council Speaker Gifford Miller. Mr. Ross also has contributed $2,000 to Senator Kerry and $7,500 to Democrat Committees last year, while recently giving $1,000 to a Republican congressional committee.

In Michigan yesterday, in honor of the gift, the school’s board of directors met in a special session and voted to rename the business school for Mr. Ross, although some might joke that the entire university should change its name, too.

As a 20-year donor, Mr. Ross has also given $5 million toward the funding of a new athletic center, $1 million to establish a professorship in real estate, and $50,000 to establish a fellowship in the school’s College of Literature, Science and the Arts.

Philanthropy analysts were wowed by the gift, and wondered if the era of big giving had returned from a recent lull.

Kathleen McCarthy, director of the Center on Philanthropy at CUNY’s graduate school, called Ross’s donation to University of Michigan “your basic bread-and-butter gift,” and endowment money that all major academic institutions are seeking.

“What’s significant is the size,” she said. “It’s stunning given today’s economic uncertainties.”

While Mr. Ross’s gift is the biggest in University of Michigan’s history, it pales in comparison to Bill Gates’s $1 billion scholars program donation in 1999, the recent $150 million gift to New York University from late city lawyer Julius Silver, or the more than $250 million donation to NYU from Sir Harold Acton, which came in the form of a 57-acre Italian estate and collection of Renaissance paintings.

In the last three years, the number of donations of $50 million or more to universities has decreased by more than 50%, according to John Pulley, senior editor at the Chronicle for Higher Education.

This year, there have been seven private gifts of $50 million or more going to American universities. By contrast, there were 16 gifts of $50 million or more in 2002 and 17 in 1999.

Mr. Ross’s generosity to Michigan, Mr. Pulley said, maybe a sign to universities “that happier days are just around the corner.”


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