Penn alum donates $2 million to Philosophy, Politics and Economics

Penn alumnus Steven Goldstone has presented the Philosophy, Politics and Economics program with a $2 million donation. The gift will create the Steven Goldstone Fund for PPE, which will endow teaching fellowships and sponsor the Goldstone Forum, a lecture series featuring prominent figures in business, politics and academia. Some money will also be used to fund research for undergraduate PPE majors and provide additional teaching assistants for the program. Goldstone, who graduated from Penn in 1967, served as the chairman of Nabisco and Nabisco, Inc. until his retirement in December. "PPE is one of those majors that naturally draws on the talents of the Law School and the Wharton School," Goldstone said. "I am very interested in seeing that this major becomes an exciting one for students at Penn." The gift, which was announced on Wednesday, is Goldstone's first donation to the University, coming two weeks after Penn alumnus George Weiss donated $20 million to create a technology hub and a financial aid fund in his name. School of Arts and Sciences Dean Samuel Preston said the gift would aid a program badly in need of funding. "I think it's going to have a major impact," Preston said. "This is a program that did not have many resources devoted to it." PPE was created eight years ago as an interdisciplinary major relying on the resources of other departments -- namely the Political Science, Economics and Philosophy departments. Recently, the program has had difficulty recruiting faculty from other departments to teach classes for the major. But PPE Program Director Samuel Freeman believes that this is a major step in the right direction. "I think [the gift] will have a big impact solidifying the major," Freeman said. "It'll attract professors who might not otherwise be interested in teaching courses that are PPE-related." Freeman said some of the money will be devoted to hiring an associate director, most likely one with a political science background. He plans on conducting a national search for the new position. Upon hearing the news, many PPE students were pleased and hopeful that the fund would fill some of the program's current voids. "There definitely have been problems, especially in the political science sections," College junior and PPE major Stephanie Benedetto said. "The more they can add to build up the program, the better." College junior Amanda Shiffman, also a PPE major, said she hopes that the donation will allow the PPE program to become more independent. "PPE doesn't have much of its own," she said. "There aren't very many PPE specific courses. It would be nice to have something more for PPE on its own." Freeman echoed the sentiments of many PPE students. "I think the program has been seen by other faculty as an appendage of the Philosophy Department," Freeman said. "[The gift] will give PPE an independent presence on campus and set down independent roots." Goldstone, a former political science major, first returned to the University in 1999 as a lecturer in the Fox Leadership Lecture Series. He said that his visit prompted him to make the donation. "You get very busy in your life and a lot of distance gets created," Goldstone said. "It reminded me for a lot of reasons why Penn is such a great place." "[Goldstone] really had very little involvement with the University until we invited him to give a talk in the Lessons in Leadership program," Preston said. "That began the initial discussions." Freeman said he and Goldstone share the belief that students should become more attached to the PPE major. "His connection is with the undergraduate arts and sciences," Freeman said. "He's very interested in getting students more involved in the major and in events that the major itself sponsors." The first Goldstone Forum has been scheduled for April 3, and it will feature legal theorist and Oxford professor Ronald Dworkin.