Invest In CUNY

For more than 160 years, The City College has been a landmark of diversity, opportunity and academic fire, offering a world-class education and powering success stories from Ira Gershwin to Jonas Salk to Colin Powell to nine Nobel Prize winners. City College offers more than 100 undergraduate and master’s programs, four professional schools, 13 on-site CUNY doctoral programs, the unique seven-year BS/MD program of the Sophie B. Davis School of Biomedical Education, the Grove School of Engineering and the School of Architecture, Urban Design and Landscape Architecture.

The college houses many research institutes and centers, including the Institute for Ultrafast Spectroscopy and Lasers, the CUNY Institute for Transportation Systems, the Colin Powell Center for Policy Studies, The Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service and the New York Structural Biology Center. It brings in more than $45 million in research grants and contributions annually. It is home to several of City University’s unique and flagship programs in science, engineering and architecture and is the site for CUNY’s new Advanced Science Research Center.

Philanthropic Support FY00-FY09 — $282,000,000
Projected Philanthropy Target through FY2015 — $500,000,000

Alumni and friends have given more than $280 million in gifts and pledges for scholarships, professorships, faculty development, academic programs, centers of excellence and discretionary funding. Proceeds from the annual Presidential Awards Dinner have exceeded $1 million for the last four years and benefit the President’s Fund for Excellence.

Gift Highlights

Look Who's Investing in The City College of New York

Andrew S. Grove, Founder and Former Chairman, Intel Corp.

“City College allowed me to be me. It was an ultimate meritocracy, where I was encouraged to speak my mind and fight for my convictions. I could even win arguments with professors if I was right. My natural inclination to explore and question, which I suppressed while living under a totalitarian regime in my native Hungary, sprang back to life. It was like being replanted in very friendly soil, and I flourished. City College also made my career possible, as it did for an untold number of low-income students, immigrants and otherwise, who came before me and after me. I believe those of us who benefited from the college’s superb intellectual experience have a responsibility to make sure that it endures for future generations.”

Dr. Grove made a transformative investment of $26 million in City College’s School of Engineering. In recognition of this gift, City College renamed the school the Grove School of Engineering.

Joseph Flom, Partner, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom

“My experience at City College can be summed up in a few words. The academics were great and demanding — after City, everything else was easy. Today’s CCNY students face the same kinds of challenges I did; like me, many of them have to work while in school. They face an additional burden that I did not, however: School was tuition-free in my day, but now it is not. They also face other serious barriers to their education, including the kinds of emergencies that can make the difference between staying in school and having to leave. That is why I supported initiatives from the Carroll and Milton Petrie Foundation to provide financial assistance for honors students and special emergency funds to help students stay the course. I hope that these initiatives will help many of City’s tremendously talented but needy kids excel.”

In addition, Skadden, Arps, Slate,Meagher & Flom has established a groundbreaking program at City College, the Skadden, Arps Honors Program in Legal Studies, whose aim is to provide avenues to success for students from populations underrepresented in the legal profession.

Colin L. Powell, Former U.S. Secretary of State

“I established the Maude and Luther Powell America’s Promise scholarship fund to honor my parents. I could think of no better way to do that than to help another generation of immigrant kids get an education at CCNY, just as I did 50 years ago. I recently visited the Colin Powell Center for Policy Studies at CCNY and met some of our current students. They were from all over the world and were determined to make the best of the opportunity they received from CCNY. Now that I am out of government, I look forward to working with the Powell Center to reach even more youngsters anxious to serve humankind.”

Gen. Powell, founding scholar of the Colin Powell Center for Policy Studies at the College and active leader of its advisory council, also has made a generous financial commitment to ensure its future success.

Jack Rudin, Chairman of Rudin Management Co.

“My father, the son of immigrants, was born in New York on the Lower East Side. He struggled to educate himself. He was proud to have attended City College (Class of 1918). The education he received enabled him to help create the city skyline we see today. He often told me that he felt enriched by his association with CCNY, and therefore our family should always be one of its champions. In the 85 years that we have been associated with the City College leadership, our family has wholeheartedly believed that the health and welfare of New York City are inextricably linked with that of CCNY. My family’s support for The Campaign for The City College of New York is a significant way of recognizing the long legacy of educational excellence and opportunity embodied at the college. The commitment also serves as a powerful investment in the prosperity and continued greatness of New York City.”

The Rudin family has supported many initiatives at the college, including the Samuel Rudin Distinguished Visiting Scholar Lecture, the Samuel Rudin Academic Resource Center and the Rudin Presidential Initiatives Fund. A grant from the May and Samuel Rudin Foundation helped to establish the Colin Powell Center for Policy Studies.

Josh S. Weston, Honorary Chairman, Automatic Data Processing Inc.

“I’m sponsoring The Josh and Judy Weston Public Service Scholars Program, to enable City College students to do pro bono public service in the summer instead of having to get a regular job. This ground-breaking program will enable CCNY’s most civic-minded students to take the lead, as so many CCNY students have before them, in public service. I received a good four-year undergraduate education at City and managed to do well enough to earn a Fulbright grant after I graduated. Just like City College students today, I came from a family that couldn’t have afforded to send me to a private college. Because of the opportunity CCNY gave me, I enjoyed the convenience and the economy of going to a top-notch college in New York City.”

In addition to the above, Mr. Weston and his wife, Judy, have underwritten many other important programs at City College, including the Weston International Student Travel Program and The Josh and Judy Weston Master’s Program Scholarships in Public Service.

Larry Gralla, Founding Chairman of Gralla Publications

“Attending CCNY resulted in several fabulous things for me. I maet my wife Yvette and started work with my older brother and lifetime business partner, Milton. My wife and I are in a situation in life where we can afford to support important causes. We know the role of City College is to open a door of opportunity for people who might not have any other way of obtaining an education. I started the Stuyvesant-CCNY Scholarship project to provide bright New York students, most often children of recent immigrant families, a chance to attend CCNY and graduate without debt. The project also offers alumni like me, who were given a superb education at both Stuyvesant and City College a chance to give back.”