Couple to give record $200-million gift to USC
The unrestricted donation from alumnus David Dornsife, the chairman of a large steel fabricating company, and his wife, Dana, will go to the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, which will be named for the couple.
The $200-million gift from Dana and David Dornsife will go to USC’s College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. It is expected to support faculty hiring, research and fellowships. (Philip Channing / March 9, 2011)
By Larry Gordon, Los Angeles TimesMarch 9, 2011
The University of Southern California will announce Wednesday its largest donation ever, a $200-million gift from alumnus David Dornsife, the chairman of a large steel fabricating company, and his wife, Dana.The Dornsifes' donation will go to USC's College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, the university's biggest academic unit, without restrictions on how it should be spent. It is expected to support faculty hiring, research and fellowships and be especially useful for the humanities and social sciences, which receive less funding than the sciences from federal and private sources.
USC President C. L. Max Nikias praised the donors, after whom the college will be named, for the donation's size and its unusually open-ended nature. "Especially in the economic environment we are in, this gift makes a big statement about the importance of the humanities and social sciences in the university, not just the sciences," he said. "It's a very, very transformative gift."
As a single donation, it beats USC's previous record of $175 million from "Star Wars" creator George Lucas, given in 2006 to build a new home for the university's film school, which he attended. Philanthropy experts say the Dornsife gift, along with two recent $100-million gifts to UCLA from other donors, shows that the recession's chilling effect on college fundraising may be easing.
David Dornsife, 67, is chairman and majority owner of Herrick Corp., a Stockton-based firm that has fabricated steel for many of the signature skyscrapers and civic projects in Los Angeles, San Francisco and other cities. The privately held company has plants in Stockton and San Bernardino, as well as Texas, Mississippi and Thailand, and employs about 2,000 people.
Dornsife, a USC trustee, praised the school's rising academic prestige and said he hopes to help "continue the momentum."
A USC business major who graduated in 1965 and was a shot putter on the track team, Dornsife has deep family ties to the Los Angeles campus; both his parents were also USC alumni. And although none of their six adult children attended the school, Dana and David Dornsife say they are encouraging their eight grandchildren with gifts of Trojan sweatshirts.
"We are brainwashing them at an early age," he joked.
In a telephone interview from their home in Danville in Northern California, the Dornsifes recalled how they had attended Nikias' inauguration in October and heard references to several USC schools that have been named for donors, including the Viterbi School of Engineering. The couple, who have made major donations to neuroscience research at the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, began discussing how that school lacked a donor name. Campus officials then encouraged a naming donation.
The college has 33 academic departments, including anthropology, chemistry, English and economics. It enrolls about 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students.
That broad range "allows students to put more tools in their tool box and address some of the major issues in the world today," said Dana Dornsife, 49, who is a business graduate of Drexel University in Philadelphia and has established a charity, the Lazarex Cancer Foundation, which helps cancer patients and their families through clinical trial treatments.
As for the gift's lack of restrictions, the couple said they had confidence in USC faculty and administrators to spend it wisely.
Howard Gillman, dean of what will be the USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, said the school will establish a cash prize for outstanding seniors whose scholarly work tackles societal problems in the United States and abroad. But in general, the donation will boost the school's endowment, while officials consider the best ways to use the money.
USC officials and the Dornsifes declined to provide details of the gift, such as whether it is being paid in a lump sum or over time, and whether it is all cash.
The single largest gift to a U.S. college or university was the $600-million pledge to Caltech in 2001 from Intel Corp. co-founder Gordon Moore, his wife Betty, and their foundation, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. More than 20 schools have received individual donations of at least $200 million over the years.
National fundraising experts noted that big donors usually focus on a construction project or research area, in contrast to the unrestricted Dornsife gift. "In fact, it is often the kind of gift an institution needs the most. It is both a rare thing and a good thing for the donor to have the sense of confidence in the institution making those judgments," said Rae Goldsmith, vice president for advancement resources at the Washington, D.C.-based Council for Advancement and Support of Education.
Along with many universities, USC saw its endowment decline in the 2008 stock market and real estate collapse but has recovered somewhat, to $2.9 billion by last June, officials said. It is dwarfed by endowments at the wealthiest private universities, including Harvard's $27 billion, Yale's $16.7 billion and Stanford's $13.8 billion.
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Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times
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Comments (91)
Add / View comments | Discussion FAQJBUSC13 at 11:38 AM March 09, 2011As a current student in the College, I can't say just how grateful I am that the Dornsifes are showing so much generosity and faith in USC's administration to allocate this tremendous gift. It's an exciting time to be a part of the Trojan Family! This helps to offer me further confirmation that I made the right choice two years ago in choosing to be a part of one of the most impressive ascensions in higher education. In just my short time here I have witnessed USC's tireless commitment to self improvement through creating ever-stronger ties with our community, placing an emphasis on providing a top-tier education to its students, leading the way in some of the most important research of our time and engaging the most impressive family of alumni and supporters in the world. This is just more proof that USC will not be satisfied with anything other than undisputed excellence and that is why it makes me and my peers so thankful.
DangerMouse at 11:14 AM March 09, 2011Sheesh - I was actually defending USC in my comments. Yeah - UCLA football has sucked for years, no arguement. USC's team IS LA's team, I said I even root for them in Bowl Games.
I further went on to say USC has academically caught and surpassed Marinello, Bryman, Everest, American InterContinental and the Art Institute. Soon ELAC.
Fine, fine - money never has and never will determine the outcome of admissions at USC.
Happy?
michael g at 11:03 AM March 09, 2011Another fabulous gift coming from yet, another, terrific USC alum!! Thanks for the bump, old Trojan. I, too, graduated from the School of Letters, Arts and Sciences. It was one of the best times of my life. USC has not only become THE school to attend in Southern California-- but on the entire West Coast. Keep up the good work, the entire region is behind you...!!
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