CCNY President Gregory H. Williams
Announces
$26 Million Gift From
Intel Co-Founder Andrew S. Grove, ’60
- CUNY Chancellor
to Recommend Naming Grove School of Engineering
- Contribution
is Largest Gift to City College
The
City College of New York (CCNY) announced recently that Andrew
S. Grove, a member of the Class of 1960 and former chairman
and a co-founder of Intel Corp., the world’s leading producer of microchips,
will donate $26 million to his alma mater, and that CUNY Chancellor
Matthew Goldstein will recommend to the CUNY Board of Trustees
that CCNY’s School of Engineering be named as The Grove
School of Engineering.
“Dr.
Grove is the quintessential City College graduate: He
entered CCNY in 1957 as a recent immigrant, with no knowledge
of English, and went on to graduate at the top of his class. He then did as much as anyone to usher
in the information revolution that changed the face and pace
of our world.” said Gregory H. Williams, President of
The City College, who noted that this gift is the largest ever
made to CCNY. “His
gift will bring world-class opportunities for generations of
gifted engineering students, and enable The City College School
of Engineering to take its place among the best schools of
engineering in the nation.”
“The
City College of New York represents the bookends to my professional
life from the cold January day in 1957 when I found my way
to the admissions office to the chance encounter, a few weeks
ago, with the winner of the Intel Science Talent Search on
the day he was starting at City,” said Grove. “This
institution is a veritable American-dream machine. I hope to help keep it that way.”
Chancellor
Goldstein lauded the gift from Dr. Grove as “an enormous
vote of confidence for The City College and CUNY. We
thank Dr. Grove for recognizing and supporting the extraordinary
role City College and CUNY play in providing access to high
quality education and to talented students from diverse backgrounds
and in helping to build a workforce with strong technology
skills.” The
Chancellor stated that Dr. Grove’s gift was an important
milestone for the “Invest in CUNY” Campaign for
the Colleges of The City University of New York, which is seeking
to raise $1.2 billion by 2012 and has raised $625 million in
gifts and pledges to date. “Andy
Grove’s generosity and leadership sends a powerful signal
of support for quality public higher education.”
Chairman
Benno Schmidt of the Board of Trustees said, “I am
both grateful for and inspired by the opportunities for the
School of Engineering to reach new heights propelled by the
spectacular support of Dr. Grove. I
welcome Chancellor Matthew Goldstein’s recommendation
to name the School of Engineering in honor of this distinguished
alumnus. We commend President Gregory Williams
for his great success in raising standards, increasing enrollments
and enhancing the academic programs of The City College.”
The gift includes
funds for current uses and also for establishing the Grove
Endowment that will exist in perpetuity and be used to provide
ongoing support to gifted engineering faculty and students.
CCNY will use the gift to help the School of Engineering attract
and retain new faculty, renovate and equip laboratories for
new faculty and rising stars. Funds from the gift will also
support development of new interdisciplinary programs and will
be used to provide seed money for new research initiatives
with high potential for external funding.
Several
improvements to the School of Engineering infrastructure
will be funded through the grant, as well. These
include wireless Internet access throughout Steinman Hall,
the School’s primary building, installation of a centralized
e-mail server and renovation of new space as the School of
Engineering expands.#