The Annenberg School for Communication has received a $100 million gift from the Annenberg Foundation, University officials announced yesterday.
Plans for using the grant -- which is one of the largest the University has ever received -- include classroom renovations, the creation of a new undergraduate concentration program, faculty appointments and an expansion of graduate resources.
"This is a gift that's going to translate directly into the lives of our students, and that's the best kind of gift," Annenberg Dean Kathleen Hall Jamieson said.
The Foundation's head, Walter Annenberg, established the Annenberg School at Penn in 1958 and has since made a series of significant financial contributions.
In 1993, the Annenberg Foundation gave the University $120 million, part of which helped create the Annenberg Public Policy Center. That donation remains the largest in Penn's history.
The Annenberg Foundation also announced a $100 million donation to the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication yesterday.
Walter Annenberg, 94, is a former editor and publisher of The Philadelphia Inquirer and founder of TV Guide and Seventeen magazine. He also served as ambassador to Britain from 1969-1974. According to Forbes magazine, he has a net worth of $4 billion.
The Annenberg Foundation is co-headed by his wife Leonore and daughter Wallis, who is director of its Los Angeles office.
"We're obviously thrilled at the continuing generosity of the Annenberg family and the Annenberg Foundation," University President Judith Rodin said. "It's a marvelous gift and a marvelous family."
"This additional gift really reflects, I am sure, their satisfaction with the way [former] funds have been" used and "the remarkable impact the Annenberg School has made consistent with the goals of the Foundation," Rodin added.
Jamieson said the Annenberg School's first use of the endowment will be to renovate its undergraduate classrooms. This will include installing state-of-the-art video and computer technology systems, as well as installing new carpeting and seats in each room.
Once funding has been allotted for these renovations, the next goal will be the creation of a new concentration -- tentatively called "Policy, Politics and Public Service" -- for undergraduate students, Jamieson said. Planning for the project will be lead by Annenberg Public Policy fellow David Eisenhower and Communications Professor and Undergraduate Dean Carolyn Marvin.
Although the program's specific structure has not yet been designed, Jamieson said it will include a "new configuration of classes" and opportunities for undergraduates to work in Washington and participate in seminars and summer programs.
"We wanted to do something that's important for undergraduates in this new area," Jamieson said, noting that the new concentration will "create a much richer educational experience" for undergraduate students.
Rodin said the funding will also allow the school to accept more undergraduates into its major program.
"We've had extraordinary pressure on the undergraduate program," Rodin said. "We haven't had the facilities and resources to accommodate [more undergraduates] so we're very excited about this."
The money will also be used to recruit at least three new faculty members, Jamieson said. But this will not happen until the school's new dean is selected, after Jamieson's term ends this spring.
"You want the new dean to chart a vision for the school that's different from the vision of the former dean," Jamieson said.
The school's fourth priority will be to "try to increase the amount of total support we have available for our graduate students," Jamieson said. This will include increased funding and a permanent summer program for graduate students.
Jamieson said plans for how to use the grant money stemmed from conversations with the Annenberg family.
"This comes out of a collaborative process," she said. "The donors who founded the school are still active and helping the school."
Rodin echoed Jamieson's sentiments, noting that she and Jamieson have been working closely with the Annenbergs.
"I think the family recognized that the school was doing extraordinary work," Rodin said.
The Annenberg gift follows an equally large gift Penn received in March, when the University of Pennsylvania Health System received a $100 million gift from the Philadelphia Health Care Trust, which agreed to transfer control of its assets to Penn Medicine.
