Hunter College

PRESIDENT
Jennifer J. Raab
FOUNDATION CHAIR
Klara Silverstein <pdf>
FOUR SCHOOLS
Arts and Sciences
Education
Social Work
The Health Professions
TOTAL COLLEGE ENROLLMENT
20,899 (75 percent undergraduate/ 25 percent graduate)
ALUMNI ON RECORD
100,000
FULL-TIME FACULTY
673

With a diverse student population of more than 20,000, Hunter is the largest college in The City University of New York system. Founded in 1870, the college offers more than 170 undergraduate and graduate programs. Hunter is noted for its professional schools in education, health sciences, nursing and social work,as well as for its excellence in the liberal arts. Named by The Princeton Review as the No. 8 Best Value public college in the country, Hunter has a distinguished reputation for nurturing talented minority scientists and providing high-quality science education in the 21st century. The college also oversees the Hunter College High School and Elementary School that serve gifted and talented students in preschool through 12th grade.

Philanthropic Support FY00-FY09 — $134,621,228
Projected Philanthropy Target through FY2015 — $200,000,000

Philanthropic support to Hunter College during the campaign totals $134,621,228. Private gifts assist the college in four strategic areas: funding scholarships, internships and stipends; attracting and retaining extraordinary faculty and supporting their research; developing and supporting flagship academic programs; and improving facilities and infrastructure.

Gift Highlights

  • A $5-million contribution from an anonymous donor; $4 million will support scholarships, and the remaining $1 million will go for general support.
  • Joan (’60) and William Grabe donated $1 million to establish the Joan Hansen Grabe Dean at the Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing.
  • Rita (’46) and Burton Goldberg have pledged $1 million to the Department of Theatre to establish the Rita and Burton Goldberg MFA in Playwriting Program.
  • Larry and Amy Robbins gave $1 million to the college’s main library.
  • Lew (’67) and Bobbie Frankfort’s gift of $1 million created the Frankfort Teacher Video Initiative that uses state-of-the-art remotecontrolled cameras to record student teachers as they interact with children in classrooms.
  • Lisa (’81) and Richard Witten donated $1 million to endow scholarships in Hunter’s Honors College.
  • Evelyn Kranes Kossak (’42) gave $1 million to name the painting program in the Department of Art.
  • Susan (’65) and Roger Hertog’s gift of $1 million provided support for the MFA Program in Creative Writing and for the Hertog Fellows Program.
  • Susan (’75) and David Bershad gave $1 million to establish the Bershad Curator of the Hunter College Art Galleries and a Professor of Curatorial Studies.
  • The Carroll and Milton Petrie Foundation’s gift of $1 million established the Petrie Student Emergency Fund.

Look Who's Investing in Hunter College

Hunter College School of Social Work

In October 2008, Hunter College was the beneficiary of the largest contribution ever made to The City University of New York: $40 million in private funds from the proceeds of the sale of the School of Social Work building on East 79th Street. This donation, which was accompanied by an additional $80 million from the governor and state legislature for the construction of Hunter’s School of Social Work building in East Harlem, demonstrates the value of private philanthropy in leveraging public dollars. The building also will house the CUNY School of Public Health.

Ruth and Harold Newman

“My wife’s relationship with the school was resurrected after 50 years when we met Jennifer [Raab] through a mutual friend who mentioned that Ruth was a Hunter graduate. Jennifer is a very wonderful and persuasive person. We were impressed with her goals and forward-looking vision, and we wanted to support them.”

— Harold Newman

In 2007, Hunter alumna Ruth Newman and her husband, Harold, gave $2 million to the School of Arts and Sciences. The donation, then the largest in the college’s history, established and permanently endowed the deanship as the Ruth and Harold Newman Dean of the Hunter College School of Arts and Sciences and will support a number of new programs, one of which will be a Seminar for Civic Understanding Initiative. Ruth Newman graduated from Hunter cum laude with a BA in Spanish in 1954. A member of the Hunter College Visioning Cabinet and the Hunter College Foundation, she also has been involved with the Hunter College Mentoring Program.

Klara Silverstein

“I was really thrilled to have a named chair for Dr. Steiner. The most important thing to me was his expertise and his desire to improve public education. I have many friends in the world of education who were aware of him, and I got letters of congratulations from people in many different places.”

— Klara Silverstein, chair of the Hunter College Foundation

Hunter was able to recruit an outstanding talent in public education with the help of a $1-million gift from Klara Silverstein that permanently endowed the Klara and Larry Silverstein Dean of the Hunter College School of Education. Dr. David Steiner assumed the post in August 2005. Dr. Steiner has talked enthusiastically about the School of Education and the significance of the Silverstein gift. Speaking about the opportunities for training teachers at a New York City school like Hunter, he referred to the college as a “public school in the public service.” He added, “I’m deeply honored, not on my own behalf, but on behalf of my colleagues, our school and my successors.”

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