The largest donation in UR’s history was announced at last Thursday’s trustees dinner. Board of Trustees chairman Edmund Hajim contributed $30 million of his personal fortune to UR.
Hajim’s gift is the largest single donation ever contributed to UR, outdoing George Eastman’s two separate gifts of $17 million and Charles Hutchison’s $26 million gift.
The donation will be paid in increments over several years. The gift will specifically benefit Rochester’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Hajim himself is a ’58 alumnus of the school.
Both UR President Joel Seligman and Hajim intend to partially use the endowment to create student scholarships for five scholars in each class and to create financial aid support. The contribution will also increase the University’s endowment.
‘This is a historic commitment,” Seligman said. ‘With this gift of historic generosity, his support and his example make him our most inspiring donor at this moment in our history. This is a truly transformational gift, and we are enormously grateful to him.”
Hajim said he hoped his record-breaking donation will be outmatched some day.
‘I feel honored to be able to provide this gift to such an important institution,” he said. ‘But as they say in sports, records are made to be broken. Nothing would make me happier than to see this gift quickly surpassed by many others.”
Leber is a member of the class of 2011.
