Historic $3B donation made for new Carnegie Mellon campus

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Ken Griffin at a 2018 press conference Associated Press / Photo by Ashlee Rezin, File / Chicago Sun-Times

Historic $3B donation made for new Carnegie Mellon campus

The Pittsburgh-based university planned a new campus for Miami, Fla., with a $3 billion donation from Citadel founder Ken Griffin, according to a Wednesday announcement. Carnegie Mellon University characterized the donation as historic, with some commentators citing it as the largest donation ever in the history of higher education.

About $1 billion of Griffin’s donation would support Carnegie Mellon’s existing Pittsburgh campus, including a $500 million investment in the school’s highly ranked computer science program. University officials also planned to rename the School of Computer Science to Kenneth C. Griffin School of Computer Science. The remaining $2 billion from Griffin would support the launch of CMU’s Miami campus.

Carnegie Mellon contributed profoundly to America’s preeminence in science, engineering, technology, and the arts, according to Griffin. CMU fostered talent and pioneered scientific breakthroughs, which shaped global leaders and innovators, the Harvard alum added.

So what’s planned for Miami? Construction on the school’s new 35-acre campus, located in central Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood, would begin next year and finish by 2028, according to CMU. The new campus would support over 3,500 students in undergraduate, master’s, and Ph.D. programs, with about 300 faculty and over 600 staffers. CMU Miami would pioneer a higher education model built for the next era of American innovation, according to the university.

The Miami campus would include spaces for research labs and venture studios, while also creating opportunities for collaboration across CMU’s locations, the school added. The new campus is planned to accommodate a wide range of focus areas, including human health, biological discovery, national security, energy and climate resilience, and advanced manufacturing. Instead of extending the school’s individual programs, the new campus will develop into a comprehensive university with its own central mission, according to the CMU announcement.