The W.P. Carey Foundation announced a plan to raise $50 million dollars for the W.P. Carey School of Business at ASU Tuesday, beginning the fundraising push with a $25 million donation of its own.
According to a University press release, $15 million of the initial funding will be directed from the foundation to enhance the existing career services resources for the 16,000 students in the business school.
Support will include increased hiring, technology and online tools aimed at improving job placement rates for graduates as well as "elevating starting salaries, developing new relationships with industry-leading recruiting partners, and providing enhanced lifelong learning to alumni," according to the release.
Another $10 million is planned to be used to recruit “prominent professors and researchers as endowed academic chairs."
That $25 million is part of a push to raise a total of $50 million as part of Campaign ASU 2020, which aims to raise $1.5 billion by 2020.
The contribution was lauded by ASU officials, including W.P. Carey Dean Amy Hillman.
“It is so rewarding to continue our partnership with the W. P. Carey Foundation, whose unquestioned commitment to education has brought so much opportunity to so many," Hillman said in the release. “This new investment reaffirms our stewardship of their previous gift and provides us what is required to innovate and enhance our standing in an evolving business and economic environment.”
University President Michael Crow also heaped praise on the foundation for their generosity.
“This gift marks another critical turning point for the business school and reinforces the W. P. Carey Foundation’s tremendous commitment to and impact on this university,” Crow said. “The Foundation’s support over the years has resulted in ASU having one of the top-rated and most highly sought-after business schools in the country.”
The funds add to the $75 million already donated to the school by the foundation and its namesake. In 2003, the late Carey, a prominent real estate investor, donated $50 million, the second-largest private donation to a business school in the U.S. at that time.
Carey passed away in 2012, but the family has been closely affiliated with ASU since the beginning, according to the foundation's chair, William P. Carey II.
Read More: W. P. Carey passes away at age 81
“We are extremely proud of the W. P. Carey School of Business and its achievements since our initial investment of $50 million in 2003,” Carey said in the release. “My great-great-grandfather, John S. Armstrong, is credited as the legislative founder of what became Arizona State University. My grandfather Frank and his brother Bill honored that legacy with the Foundation’s initial gift. I am proud we can continue to honor all of their memories by providing additional support for the next generation of leaders to graduate from ASU’s W. P. Carey School of Business.”
Reach the reporter at isaac.windes@asu.edu or follow @isaacdwindes on Twitter.
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