Locator: 51807EDUCATION.
Phil Knight: wiki.
- co-founder and chairman emeritus of Nike
- billionaire
- b. 1938 (age 88 years old)
- ties to Oregon
- undergraduate: University of Oregon (Eugene, OR)
- Stanford Graduate School of Business
- has donated heavily to his two alma maters as well as Oregon Health & Science University
Today's announcement:
- to University of Oregon
- to create Knight College of Engineering
- $1 billion
Look at these headlines:
- Oregon needs 2,500 engineers a year
- largest donation even known to a flagship university -- NY Times, link here.
This story has so many story lines.
I think it's agreed: the alignment between needs and supply, there is a huge misalignment in US graduate and post-graduate education.
- quick fix: when Trump is out of office; very likely admissions from overseas, particularly Asia, will likely turn around
- short-term fix: geographic expansion (satellite campuses) -- see Vanderbilt University with new campus in NYC
- short-term fix: expand products -- more online opportunities for on-campus students
- longer-term: consolidation -- that's a tough pill to swallow
From the linked article:
The unscheduled phone call turned out to be worth $1 billion.
University of Oregon leaders have long been accustomed to big checks from Phil Knight, a Nike co-founder whose surname is splashed on everything from the library to the law center. When Mr. Knight called Oregon’s president this year, though, he and his wife, Penny, had a greater gift in mind: the largest known contribution to a public flagship university in the United States.
Oregon announced the donation, which will go toward starting an engineering college, on Wednesday, bringing the Knight family’s known total giving to Oregon to more than $2 billion.
But the contribution underscores how even the biggest gifts rarely erase financial strains at places like Oregon, which is weighing millions of dollars in fresh budget cuts as enrollment ebbs. Declining birthrates suggest a darkening outlook for colleges in the coming years as the number of children drops, and the Trump administration is pursuing a vigorous campaign to overhaul — and reduce — federal research funding.
Cornell University, link here. The full 238-page report, a pdf at this link: https://provost.cornell.edu/_files/initiatives/future-of-the-american-university-full-report.pdf.
I think most agree: most current successful business leaders would have done this in a ten-page memo. President Trump would have done it with a series of social media tweets. I doubt Phil Knight will read this 238-page paper.
If I decide to come back to this issue, it will be at this link. Link here: https://share.google/aimode/uWoDs6msUKW5HiMRw.
