Billionaire Nike cofounder Phil Knight gives $1 billion to his alma mater: ‘This is no time to abandon’ higher education
Phil and Penny Knight are funding a new engineering college at the University of Oregon, the largest known gift to a U.S. public flagship university.
With the Trump administration scaling back support for higher education institutions, billionaire philanthropists have stepped up to help. Nike co-founder Phil Knight has made the largest donation to a public university to date, pledging $1 billion to establish an engineering school at the University of Oregon, his alma mater. Knight, 88, is worth nearly $23 billion according to Bloomberg, and the couple's total commitment to the university now exceeds $2 billion, including previous gifts of $500 million each in 2016 and 2021.
The new gift will allow the school to create a full undergraduate engineering program, addressing the state's shortage of engineers. University President Karl Scholz emphasized that the donation gives Oregon the ability to scale innovation and meet the demands of industries of tomorrow without burdening state taxpayers. Knight emphasized that now is not the time to abandon higher education, stating that "this is no time to abandon them."
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