The Kenneth C. Griffin Charitable Fund intends to make a new $125 million gift to support the Department of Economics in expanding its leadership in education and research with wide-ranging public impact. The new gift will support new generations of faculty and students and the impact their work can have on fundamental societal challenges. This latest gift will bring Ken Griffin’s total giving in support of UChicago Economics to nearly $150 million. In recognition of his giving, including the second-largest gift in the history of UChicago, the Economics Department will be renamed the Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Economics.
The new gift will help advance a number of department initiatives, including expanded resources for faculty, increased financial aid for undergraduate and graduate students, and a new research incubator named the Kenneth C. Griffin Applied Economics Research Incubator, which will focus on new strategies to strengthen the understanding and impact of economics.
It will also support scholarships for third-year and fourth-year students in economics through the University’s Odyssey Scholarship Program and provide stipends to graduate students and support for graduate research.
Fresh off a nobel and this, aren’t we assured a return to #1 ranking in the next US News grad program ranking?
Now, Chicago econ is probably the most well endowed department in the country. AND the physical space on campus for Econ - the Saieh building, is probably the best physical space around for econ.
How about we get a few more $100M+ donations to the hospital system, huh, @Chrchill ?
(Although, as a departing barb, don’t forget that Harvard eats our lunch for undergrad outcomes - we can resume that conversation sometime else, my dear friend.)
@Cue7 I beg to differ on your lunch eating. No doubt Harvard is certainly tops in outcomes. But the other top schools are quite similar. Compare placement to Top 14 for law schools (84% of UChicago grads get in) and placement to top ten in business. Also, you cannot compare raw number at Harvard law to say UChicago Law. Harvard law is three times larger.
@Cue7 Moreover, law is not as popular at Uchicago College as law is at Harvard College. Economics is by far the most popular major at UChicago. These folks invariably end up in finance, consulting or business school.
Has no one noticed that Griffin is a Harvard alum who gave $150 million to Harvard three years ago? At the time, it was the largest single donation Harvard had ever received, and It was all to support financial aid. No departments got re-named for it, either.
He’s a Koch Bro fellow traveler, who gives a lot of money to right-wing candidates and usual-suspect PACs. But he’s been an extraordinary philanthropist. In addition to Harvard and UChicago, he’s made mega-gifts to the Art Institute, a charter school in Woodlawn, Children’s Memorial Hospital, the CSO, and the Chicago Public Library.
Ah my dear @Chrchill - you can’t resist putting down your delightful crimson scarf to pick up a shabbier maroon one.
I didn’t want to do this here, but since you opened the door… Here’s some analysis I posted in another thread, looking at Law and Med placement:
Chicago placed 47 at Chicago Law and Yale Law
Harvard placed 81 at Yale Law and Chicago Law
(I haven’t even bothered to look at placement to Harvard Law, Stanford Law, etc. I bet the numbers look even worse for Chicago when you throw HLS and SLS into the mix.)
@Churchill: it’s NOT “The University of Chicago. The Law School”. It’s just “The Law School”. If there is any question as to WHICH law school one can merely reply “the one where hell freezes over”.
@Chrchill doesn’t the law school letterhead scream “name me . . . please???”. Think about it. The Pritzker and Booth families have solved this dilemma of awkwardness in two professional school divisions. Law needs to find its own mega-donation so it can become The University of Chicago [ ] School of Law which flows well and can be nicknamed [ ]. Unlike Harvard or Yale Law it can never become “Chicago Law” because then someone will mistake it for a TV series of some kind. So, until [ ] shows up, they are stuck with that letterhead.
The College, however, will always be The College. And high schoolers are doomed to writing “The University of Chicago” so that their extended family know exactly where they are going (that’s the only name that matters anyway, and it will be obvious that the kid will be heading off for undergraduate study). A bit of awkwardness seems in keeping with the place. However, they are in good company as Princeton University’s undergrad is “Princeton University”. Used to be “The College of New Jersey” but you can’t write that w/o everyone confusing Princeton for Rutgers.
Funny bit of English usage. In general, we are happy to say “Duke University,” “Yale University,” but we say “the University of Chicago,” “the University of California,” etc. We say “the University of Pennsylvania” but “Pennsylvania State University;” “the University of Texas” but “Texas A & M University;” “the University of Miami” but “Miami University.” “Stanford University,” the official name of which is of course “Leland Stanford Junior University” and used to be “Leland Stanford Junior Memorial University,” which was often but not always preceded by “the”, And, in the exception that proves the rule, we have “THE Ohio State University” (as it is often pronounced).
Chicago was incorporated as “The University of Chicago,” so it’s appropriate that the University keep its definite article in official statements. However, even universities that don’t have “the” in their official names seem to use “the” all the time if the name starts with “University.”
Ran across another “named” academic department this evening: The Lyon G. Tyler Dept. of History at William & Mary. While the family name can be traced back to a couple of presidents (US and university) it was so named by a descendent in 2001 along with a generous monetary gift.