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Connie and Steve Ballmer donate $50M to UO for academics and branding

Last updated on 11/13/2014

“Around the 0” has the good news, here. Money for low-SES student scholarships, research, and $5M in spare change for UO’s branding team. Enrollments and GPA dipped this year – small but terrifying. Maybe this will help move the UO brand away from big-time sports insanity, towards something more academic, and attractive to smart students and their parents?

Diane Dietz has more in the RG, here.

7 Comments

  1. Not a notable alum 11/12/2014

    Hopefully the upcoming branding effort will NOT include any of the following:
    cheerleaders
    the Duck
    ballons
    fake snow
    o-gestures

    Although, $5 million could buy a $h1t ton of balloons …

  2. Anas Clypeata 11/12/2014

    Half of the money is going into an endowment. This may seem like a lost opportunity in the short term, but universities with large endowments are able to do wonderful things for their students, including providing grant-only financial aid so that students graduate with zero or minimal debt.

  3. anon 11/13/2014

    I didn’t realize that the first cluster hire was also funded. Congrats to the two Assoc VPs of Research who are leading the cluster hire for obesity prevention!

  4. anonymous 11/13/2014

    RE: Congrats to the two Assoc VPs of Research who are leading the cluster hire for obesity prevention!

    DUH!!! Is this any surprise? Expect Bean’s cluster to be the next one funded!

    • anonymous 11/13/2014

      Not surprising at all – the same thing happened with the Lokey money 6-7 years ago. The primary benefactors were RL’s Assoc VP and his friends… Foolish to think it would be different now.

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