3 Universities Get a Total of $50 Million to Build Leadership in Media and Performing Arts (Gifts Roundup)

A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle:

University of Oxford

Billionaire Stephen Schwarzman gave approximately $188 million to create the new Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities, which will house together the university’s programs in English; history; linguistics, philology, and phonetics; medieval and modern languages; music; philosophy; and theology and religion in a new building at the center of the historic Radcliffe Observatory Quarter.

The new building will be designed to encourage collaboration among those fields of study, and the center will also house a new library, exhibition and performance spaces, and the Institute for Ethics in Artificial Intelligence.

Schwarzman co-founded and leads the Blackstone Group, a global private equity firm in New York. He has given extensively to higher education over the years, including a $350 million gift to MIT last year to build a new center for computing and artificial intelligence. He has appeared on the Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 50 list of the biggest donors four times since 2008 for his many donations to nonprofits.

University of California at Los Angeles, University of Michigan, and University of Southern California

The late Patricia Mitchell left a total of $50 million through the Patricia W. Mitchell Trusts to the three universities for programs aimed at getting a more diverse pool of leaders into the entertainment, performing arts, and media industries, and instilling a strong sense of ethics in future leaders of those fields.

Mitchell, who died in 2016, was a former supper-club singer and the widow of John Mitchell, a pioneering television executive who founded Columbia Pictures Television. He died in 1988.

Of the total, the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television will receive $20 million, of which $10 million will be used to create the John H. and Patricia W. Mitchell Endowed Scholarship Fund at the school; and $10 million will support the UCLA Film & Television Archive. The USC School of Cinematic Arts will receive $20 million to establish the John H. Mitchell Endowed Fund for the Business of Entertainment, a professorship in that field, and the Mitchell Scholars scholarship program.

The University of Michigan will receive $10 million to back scholarships, internships, and other programs for students and faculty in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, including in the Department of Film, Television, and Media. The money will also expand the Stephen M. Ross School of Business’s efforts to develop ethical and diverse business leaders. John Mitchell earned a degree in economics in 1939 from the University of Michigan.

Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Virginia

Jaffray and Merrill Woodriff gave $13.5 million for a new club facility located on the campus where three schools — Albemarle High School, Jack Jouett Middle School, and Greer Elementary School — are located.

Some of the money will also be used to serve the future needs of youths in the City of Charlottesville and the Virginia counties of Albemarle, Buckingham, Fluvanna, Madison, and Orange.

Jaffray Woodriff co-founded Quantitative Investment Management, a Charlottesville hedge fund, and Merrill Woodriff is a former teacher who owns a yoga studio. The couple donated $120 million to the University of Virginia for a new school of data science earlier this year.

University of California at Los Angeles

Dr. Sidney Roberts and Dr. Clara Szego Roberts left $12 million for two programs. Of the total, $10.5 million will provide scholarships for undergraduate students studying science and art, and $1.5 million will establish a professorship in molecular and cellular endocrinology at the David Geffen School of Medicine.

The Roberts were endocrinologists and UCLA professors who came to the university in the 1940s. There they conducted research both individually and collaboratively on understanding of hormones in relation to metabolism, nutrition, brain function, and other areas.

The two shared a Ciba Award for “significant contributions to endocrinology” in 1953 and were named Guggenheim Fellows in 1956. Sidney Roberts also helped launch UCLA’s medical school as its first academic appointment and later became a founding member of the Brain Research Institute. He died in 2016, and Clara Szego Roberts died in 2017.

Carnegie Mellon University

Lane and Letty Bess donated $10 million to endow the dean’s chair for the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Lane Bess founded Bess Ventures and Advisory, a management, investment, and marketing services firm focused on the technology sector. He previously held executive positions at Zscaler and Palo Alto Networks, both internet security companies. He graduated from the university in 1983 with a degree in managerial economics.

University of Oregon and Oregon Health & Science University

Tim and Mary Boyle gave $10 million to help pay for a new biomedical data science center that is a joint program of the two universities. The money will be used to recruit and support undergraduate and graduate students, and faculty in areas such as computer science, applied math, and genomics.

The couple are University of Oregon alums. He earned a degree in journalism, and she majored in fine and applied arts. Tim Boyle co-chaired the university’s last major fundraising campaign and served as a trustee for the university’s Foundation.

Tim Boyle is chief executive of Columbia Sportswear, a sportswear retailer in Oregon that was founded by his grandfather in 1938 and led by his mother, the businesswoman and philanthropist Gert Boyle, for many years.

Baylor Scott & White the Heart Hospital — Plano

Satish and Yasmin Gupta donated $5 million through their Gupta Agarwal Foundation to back cardiology research and education programs in the newly named Satish & Yasmin Gupta Heart Center.

The Guptas founded SB International, a steel company based in Dallas, and are longtime donors to nonprofits in the Dallas area.

To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated throughout the week.