Nike cofounder Phil Knight and his wife, Penny, have donated $1 billion to the University of Oregon to establish a new engineering college, the university announced on Wednesday. This gift is the largest known donation to a public flagship university and adds to the couple's previous $1 billion in contributions to the institution, bringing their total commitment to over $2 billion, according to fortune.com.
The donation surfaced unexpectedly during an unscheduled call, according to The New York Times. The funds will support the creation of a full undergraduate engineering program at the University of Oregon, which currently offers only engineering minors and graduate programs. The new college will be named in honor of the Knights, following the naming convention of other campus facilities funded by the couple. University officials estimate the development of the program will take about a decade, as reported by fortune.com.
This gift addresses a critical shortage of engineers in Oregon, as noted by Bob Guldberg, a university vice president and bioengineering professor. The donation follows a trend of billionaire philanthropists stepping in to support higher education amid reduced federal backing. MacKenzie Scott, for example, has donated over $1 billion to historically Black colleges and universities. The Knight Campus, expanded through earlier $500 million gifts in 2016 and 2021, focuses on scientific research, and this new funding will broaden its scope to engineering education.
Karl Scholz, president of the University of Oregon, described the gift as an endorsement of the value of higher education. The new engineering college will be a significant addition to the university’s offerings, with the full undergraduate program expected to be operational within about ten years, according to fortune.com.