The Chornicle of Higher Education
November 13th, 2014
Steve Ballmer, the billionaire former Microsoft chief executive, was behind two large donations announced on Thursday: $50-million to the University of Oregon and an unspecified amount to Harvard University.
Oregon will receive the $50-million from Mr. Ballmer and his wife, Connie Ballmer, an alumna of the college, to tackle a variety of initiatives, including new professorships, scholarships, and a marketing campaign. The Register-Guard reports that the donation is the second-largest in the university’s history.
The donation to Harvard, Mr. Ballmer’s alma mater, will finance an expansion of its computer-science faculty, The Boston Globe reports. The department will add 12 faculty members in the next few years, largely as a result of the donation, bringing its total to 36. By comparison, Stanford University has about 50 faculty members, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has 55, in the field.