Carnegie Mellon University will receive an unprecedented $3bn donation from the billionaire investor Ken Griffin, making it the largest single donation in the history of US education.
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it → receive → education
Griffin, 57, is the founder and CEO of Citadel, described as the most profitable hedge fund in history.
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Griffin → describe → history
The money is going toward a new Miami campus as well as big investments at the university’s longtime home in Pittsburgh.
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money → go → Pittsburgh
Part of the funding will be used to develop Carnegie Mellon’s presence in Miami, Florida, where Griffin lives and where Citadel is now headquartered.
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Citadel → use → Miami
The rest will support priorities in Pittsburgh, including recruiting prominent academics and making attendance more affordable for students.
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attendance → support → students
The Miami campus will support more than 3,500 undergraduate, master’s and PhD students, nearly 300 faculty and more than 600 staff members, with construction slated to begin in 2027.
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construction → support → 2027
$1bn will go toward Carnegie Mellon’s computer science school and other priorities, including financial aid, Griffin and the university president, Farnam Jahanian, said.
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Griffin → go → aid
The school will be renamed the Kenneth C Griffin School of Computer Science.
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school → rename → Science
“Throughout our history, CMU has anticipated moments of profound technological change and responded with new ways of thinking and solving problems,” Jahanian said in a statement.
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Jahanian → anticipate → statement
“Artificial intelligence represents one of the defining intellectual developments of our time, and it demands that we rethink how we educate students, conduct research and partner with others.”
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we → represent → others
Founded by the industrialist Andrew Carnegie, Carnegie Mellon is particularly known for computer science, artificial intelligence, robotics and the performing arts.
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Mellon → found → science
Its School of Computer Science is ranked as the top undergraduate computer science program in the US.
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School → rank → US
The planned Miami campus will take a different approach from the traditional academic-major model.
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campus → take → model
According to the university, education there will instead be structured around “societal challenges”.
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education → accord → challenges
The campus will concentrate on “challenge areas spanning human health and biological discovery; national security and strategic capabilities; energy and climate resilience; and advanced manufacturing and industrial transformation”.
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campus → concentrate → health
The expansion also reflects Griffin’s continuing investment in Miami and south Florida.
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expansion → reflect → Miami
Citadel moved its headquarters from Chicago to Miami in 2022, and Griffin has since increased his commitments to the region to about $2.4bn, according to Reuters.
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Griffin → move → Reuters
Those contributions include support for a Miami charter school network, the University of Miami, Miami Dade College, public schools and math tutoring.
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contributions → include → Miami
Griffin, whose net worth Forbes estimated at about $58bn, will also become a member of Carnegie Mellon’s board of trustees.
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Forbes → estimate → trustees
The board already includes hedge fund billionaire David Tepper, a Carnegie Mellon graduate and donor.
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board → include → Tepper
The announcement comes one week after Nike co-founder Phil Knight donated $1bn to establish an engineering college at the University of Oregon.
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Knight → come → Oregon
Universities are increasingly seeking wealthy donors to expand science and tech programs as artificial intelligence drives economic changes.
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intelligence → seek → changes
These large donations have generated concerns about how much influence the wealthy class has over higher education.
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class → generate → education
Griffin has publicly criticized the use of political power for personal enrichment, emerging as one of the most vocal critics of Donald Trump and his administration on Wall Street.
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Griffin → criticize → Street
Earlier this year, he condemned how the president’s family appear to have made financial gain from their proximity to the White House.
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family → condemn → House
The Aporia
