Nike co-founder Phil Knight, and his wife, Penny, have donated $1bn to the University of Oregon in what the institution described as the “largest gift ever made to a comprehensive public university”.
The donation is intended to be used to establish a new engineering school in Eugene. In a news release seen by the Guardian, the university said the new school would “educate engineers and applied scientists in bioengineering and other high-demand disciplines, attract faculty and researchers to a growing campus, and accelerate the university’s ability to move discoveries out of the laboratory and into products, therapies, technologies and companies”.
The University of Oregon president, Karl Scholz, said in a statement that the Knights have “a long history of believing in things before they exist” and that “they did it in 2016, and they are doing it again now, at a scale that is genuinely hard to take in. I am grateful to them, and I am grateful to be here for it.”
Knight, 88, is a graduate of the university. The latest donation brings the Knight family’s known total giving to the University of Oregon to more than $2bn, according to the New York Times.
The school said in the news release on Wednesday that the gift is the third commitment the Knights have made at this scale in 10 years, following $500m in 2016 and $500m in 2021 that created and expanded the Knight Campus. The school also said the new engineering school will be located at the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact.
In the announcement, Knight also shared a statement noting that “to make an audacious dream a reality requires more than a vivid imagination”.
“It also requires the sort of opportunity that our great American universities, both public and private, have historically provided,” he said. “This is no time to abandon them.”
He added: “Penny and I are grateful for the chance to invest in our most promising young people’s future in this important way.”
Bob Guldberg, vice-president and Robert and Leona DeArmond executive director of the Knight Campus, said in a statement that the creation of a college of engineering “builds on the original vision put forward by UO faculty who inspired Phil and Penny to invest in the idea that we can do better translating the great work we do out into the real world”.
“The Knight Campus stands on the foundation of a remarkable Oregon legacy: the belief that bold innovation can unlock human potential,” Guldberg said. “Today, we carry that same belief forward, applying it to science, technology, and human health.”
Scholz, the university president, said in an interview with the New York Times about the donation that “one of the most successful businesspeople in the history of humanity, and one of the most generous philanthropists in the history of humanity, has said higher education is worth an investment of this magnitude.
“At a time when we’re all feeling a little bit under siege, this is tremendous news,” he said, adding that the gift amounted to “a screaming endorsement of the importance of what we’re doing”.
Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, said in a statement: “This groundbreaking gift from Phil and Penny Knight stands out for its extraordinary generosity and monumental impact at a public university.
“As a proud University of Oregon alumnus, I know my alma mater will put this massive investment to great use by educating students who will meet the ongoing need for engineers so essential to the economy in our state and nationwide.”
The news on Wednesday comes as earlier this month it was announced that the Knights were committing $1.1bn to Providence St Vincent Medical Center and to Providence Heart Institute to create Oregon’s first hospital dedicated exclusively to women’s health.
“Penny and I have always believed that real breakthroughs come from people willing to take on the toughest challenges,” Knight said in a statement earlier this month. “Providence has shown that kind of ambition in cardiovascular care, and we see the same opportunity to do something truly distinctive for women’s health. We’re proud to invest in teams that will change what’s possible for communities across Oregon and beyond.”
Last year, Oregon Health & Science University announced that it had received a $2bn commitment from the Knights to its cancer institute, which the university said would “transform the future of cancer care and set a new standard globally”.
