Bloomberg has the news on the OHSU gift here. $200M in matching funds came from the state, $100M came from Gert Boyle, founder of Columbia Sportswear:
The $500 million donation by Knight and his wife Penny is the largest single gift ever made to a U.S. college, while the $1 billion total is the biggest successful matching pledge on record, according to Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. The money will be used to support research into the early detection of cancer.
While UO administrators argue that big-time sports are crucial to fundraising, OHSU managed to raise this money despite an athletic program that is just slightly less big-time than the Ducks:
The Student Center offers intramural sports leagues including indoor soccer, competitive and recreational basketball and volleyball. All of the leagues are co-ed and on a first come, first served basis.
From what I can tell they don’t even have a mascot. Or a branding contract with 160over90. And they call it a university?
I wonder how the Knights would feel about giving a half billion or a billion or two to UO academics, given the warm good spirit shown to them over the years, especially by the UO faculty.
I think it’s fair to say you’ve got the causality wrong.