Just as the Trump administration has retreated from supporting higher education institutions, billionaire philanthropists have jumped in. MacKenzie Scott has donated more than $1 billion collectively to HBCUs, and Nike cofounder Phil Knight just made the largest known donation to a public flagship university.
The University of Oregon, where Knight graduated in 1959, announced Wednesday that the Nike cofounder and his wife, Penny, had committed a whopping $1 billion to establish an engineering college there. The New York Times reported it was an unexpected gift from the Knights, having surfaced from an unscheduled call.
