Couple pledges $25M to UTHealth School of Nursing
A retired Houston oilfield services executive and his wife are giving $25 million to the School of Nursing at University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, the largest donation in the school’s 45-year history.
The gift from Robert and Jane Cizik, announced Wednesday, will fund initiatives to address the shortage of nurses, projected to get worse in coming years. In recognition of the donation, the school will be renamed the Jane and Robert Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth.
“The need is so great now that so many people are getting older,” said Jane Cizik, whose sister is a registered nurse. “We believe in nursing so much and hope that this gift results in better care for everyone.”
Texas is expected to have a shortage of 30,00 registered nurses by 2030 if it does not increase its graduate numbers, said Lorraine Frazier, dean of the UTHealth nursing school. She said millennials are stepping up to take on “the increasingly complex jobs of retiring nurses,” but many need significant scholarship assistance.
Frazier added that statistics project a need for 35 percent more faculty members to make up for instructors scheduled to retire in coming years and to meet the expected increase in demand.
Frazier said the gift will shape the school’s future of nursing education. The money will be used to endow scholarships for top students; recruit and retain faculty members; support innovative research that drives patient care; and create a distinguished lecture series.
“This is just a great match,” Frazier said. “The Ciziks have a history of spirited support of service and compassion, and nurses are all about service and compassion.“
The $25 million is a pledge, to be given over several years, UTHealth officials said.
Robert Cizik was president of Cooper Industries, a manufacturer of engines, turbines and compressors for the oil and natural gas industry, from 1973 until his retirement in 1996. He chaired a $10 million philanthropic campaign to build a new $57 million home for UTHealth’s nursing school that opened in 2002.
The Ciziks previously made a gift to the Hermann Eye Fund to name the Robert Cizik Eye Clinic, where UTHealth ophthalmologists practice. They also have given to the Wortham Theater Center, the University of Houston, the Women’s Home, Harvard, the University of Connecticut, Citizens for Animal Protection and the National Audubon Society.