Brown Corporation accepts $121 million in new gifts

THE CORPORATION at Brown University recently accepted 13 gifts totaling more than $121 million.
THE CORPORATION at Brown University recently accepted 13 gifts totaling more than $121 million.

PROVIDENCE – The corporation at Brown University has accepted 13 gifts totaling more than $121 million and also has engaged four trustees.
At its Saturday meeting, the corporation formally accepted and ratified the previous acceptance of gifts that will support financial aid, internships and academic priorities. Gifts of $1 million or more require formal acceptance.
The Brown Corporation also engaged new trustees and established five new named professorships.
Anonymous donors are contributing $38,736,035 to support “Building on Distinction: A New Plan for Brown,” the university’s strategic plan. Also supporting that plan with a $26 million gift are alumni and Brown parents Richard A. Friedman, a 1979 graduate, and Susan Pilch Friedman, a 1977 graduate.
Other major gifts include:

  • $20,376,856 in support of the School of Engineering’s new building and a gift of $19,164,207 to be designated at a later date, from anonymous donors;
  • $6 million, from the Chen family, to support an endowed professorship in China Studies; the Chen Family Fund for Faculty and Student Engagement with China and Chinese Culture; an endowment for global experiential teaching and learning; and the Brown Annual Fund;
  • $3 million from an anonymous donor, to support undergraduate summer internships, undergraduate teaching and research awards; and expansion of psychological services;
  • $1.65 million from Joseph Edelman, to support a fund for pilot research in circuit therapies and an upgrade of the Siemens 3T MRI scanner MAGNETOM Prisma in the Brown Institute for Brain Science;
  • $1,260,712 from the Thomas J. and Olive C. Watson Foundation to help establish an endowed professorship in the Thomas J. Watson Jr. ’37 Institute for International Studies;
  • $1 million from the Bernard Osher Foundation to support scholarships at Brown University for students who have experienced a cumulative gap in their education of at least five years and anticipate participation in the workforce for a significant period of time subsequent to graduation;
  • $1 million From Alan L. Stuart, a 1959 graduate and Brown parent, to increase the Stuart Family Fund and support the performing arts;
  • $1 million From Cheryl C. Effron, a 1987 graduate, and Blair Effron, to create a permanent endowment to support cross-disciplinary undergraduate education in the humanities and to provide current-use gifts for this same purpose until the endowment is fully funded;
  • $1 million from anonymous donors to support the piloting of a new program for students to intern with U.S. public sector agencies for a semester after their first or second year at Brown; and
  • $1 million from a Hong Kong parent who wishes to remain anonymous to support a postdoctoral fellowship at the Watson Institute for International Studies for scholars working on China.

The four trustees are George S. Barrett, a 1977 graduate and Brown parent; Genine Macks Fidler, a 1977 graduate and Brown parent; Alexandra Robert Gordon, a 1991 Brown graduate; and Ralph F. Rosenberg, a 1986 graduate and Brown parent.
The named professorships include the Robert Family Professorship in International Studies, the Professorship in Brain Science, the Chen Family Professorship in China Studies, the Charles Evans Hughes 1881 Professorship in International Affairs and a Professorship in Engineering.
The corporation also approved the appointment of Takeo Watanabe as the Fred M. Seed Professor of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences.

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