Kenyon receives anonymous $75M gift
Kenyon College has received a whopping $75 million gift, which it says is the largest in the school’s nearly 200-year history and the largest single gift ever to a private liberal arts college in Ohio.
The gift, from an anonymous donor, will support the development of a new library and academic quad
at the college of about 1,600 students in Knox County, the school announced Friday.
The donation triples Kenyon’s former largest single donation of $25 million, which the school received in 2002.
“These are gifts that happen rarely on the higher education landscape and certainly rarely for colleges of Kenyon’s size, so it is an exciting moment for the institution to have a gift that is truly transformational for the work that lies ahead,” Kenyon President Sean Decatur said.
The new quad, to be on the west side of the Gambier campus, will have three new buildings: a library and academic commons, an interdisciplinary academic building for the social sciences, and a new building for admissions and key student services. The quad will contain underground parking to improve accessibility and gain green space.
Kenyon’s castle-like Ascension Hall also will be renovated, and facilities for the English Department will be expanded. Those and other projects announced Friday were in line with goals already established by Kenyon through its master and strategic planning processes.
“For a small college like Kenyon to have a gift like this, it is transformative in many ways,” said Brackett B. Denniston III, chairman of the Kenyon Board of Trustees. He added that putting the donation toward facilities allows the college to focus on other important needs such as scholarships and affordability.
Students at the college, located about 50 miles northeast of Columbus, were invited Friday to Rosse Hall for a convocation-like gathering for the special announcement. It was also streamed live on Facebook.
“This is a special event for a special occasion,” Decatur said.
As for the donor, he or she has asked to remain anonymous — not an uncommon request in higher education. But university leaders know who it is.
“It is a person who has a great deal of pride and confidence in Kenyon as an institution,” Decatur said. “It’s both reassuring and I think also gratifying that there’s someone that has the level of confidence in the work that we’re doing and the confidence in the work of the institution moving forward.”
“What we were surprised at was the magnitude of the generosity,” Denniston said. “That’s the most heartening element of it, this vote of confidence in the future of Kenyon.”
By comparison, the largest gift to Ohio’s largest university, Ohio State, was a $100 million commitment in 2011 from Leslie H. Wexner, his wife, Abigail, and the Limited Brands Foundation.
The Kenyon donation, Denniston said, sends an important message about investing in education.
“This is an example of why American education remains the best in the world,” he said. “Because of investments like this.”