With the billions of dollars that he’s made through his ownership of Nike, Phil Knight has helped cement the University of Oregon as one of the premier colleges of the Pacific Northwest both academically and (most notably) athletically. But while he’s already invested upwards of a billion dollars into his beloved alma mater, he’s ready to commit another $1 billion.
On Wednesday, the University of Oregon announced that Knight and his wife have pledged $1 billion to establish a new college of engineering at the University of Oregon campus. Per the announcement, it will be the largest single gift ever given to a comprehensive public university.
“Phil and Penny Knight have committed $1 billion—the largest gift ever given to a comprehensive public university—to the University of Oregon, with the intention to establish a college of engineering located at the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact,” Ben Schorzman wrote on the school’s website.
“The new college would educate engineers and applied scientists in bioengineering and other high-demand disciplines, attract faculty and researchers to a growing campus and accelerate the university’s ability to move discoveries out of the laboratory and into products, therapies, technologies and companies.”
Knight Speaks
In a statement, Knight said that he is eager to invest in “our most promising young people’s future” by helping to open the new engineering school.
“To make an audacious dream a reality requires more than a vivid imagination. It also requires the sort of opportunity that our great American universities, both public and private, have historically provided. This is no time to abandon them. Penny and I are grateful for the chance to invest in our most promising young people’s future in this important way,” Knight said in a statement.
As excited as Ducks fans might be for the future of the football program, there’s no mention of any of that money being earmarked for the athletics department.
Not that they’re strapped for cash or anything like that. Knight has already invested hundreds of millions into the athletic department, financing the school’s sports complex and football facility.
It’s safe to say that Oregon’s inability to win a national title since they emerged as a true power in the 2010s isn’t Knight’s responsibility.
