April
23, 2004
USC announces $45 million gift from Darla Moore; with 1998 gift, it becomes largest private donation to
U.S.
business
school
University
of South
Carolina officials
announced Friday (April 23) that USC alumna and financier Darla Moore is
giving the university's Moore
School of Business
$45 million. The amount, when combined with a previous gift of $25 million from
Moore , makes
her $70 million
contribution the largest individual private gift to a U.S. business school.
Each
of her gifts has been the single largest gift to a South
Carolina
institution of higher
education.
"The
business school is an integral part of the future of
South Carolina , and I am proud of the progress made in recent years in
many aspects of the school,"
Moore
said. "Most of you in this room know just
how much change has occurred, and many have been part of fostering that change.
I believe we can – and we must – continue to improve, compete, excel and
ultimately prosper through our continued efforts."
Moore
's gift also is significant
because she is challenging the university to match that amount for the business
school, bringing the total sum to $90 million.
USC President Andrew A. Sorensen said Friday that USC is
committed to matching the gift through an additional $30 million in private
support and $15 million in public funds.
The funds will go toward a major renovation of the school's facilities
and will support scholarships and endowed professorships. The school's
Close building was built in 1973, and the Hipp building was constructed in 1983.
Joel
Smith, dean of the
Moore
School
,
says the gift affirms the vision for the school to strive for greatness.
"This
is a moment to be cherished – the moment when the
Moore
School
's pursuit of excellence turned into
the pursuit of greatness," said Smith. "Darla Moore has invested in the
Moore
School. Her support will foster faculty
recruitment and support, give academic assistance for our brightest students, and
provide a world-class facility that will nurture their teaching and learning."
Sorensen
said
Moore
's gift both signifies the school's
strength and presages greater achievements.
"We are extremely grateful to Darla Moore for her continued generosity
to the Moore School of Business," Sorensen said. "Her gift is a validation
of the strength and potential of the Moore School. Her generosity does not mean we
can take it easy now. In fact, we must work even more diligently to meet her
challenge and expectations, which we share, to improve the lives of South Carolinians ."
The
Moore
School
has earned national and international recognition, particularly for its
top-ranked program in international business, but the school's reputation in
other fields is spreading. The May issue of Entrepreneur
magazine ranks the entrepreneurship
program among the top 100 in the country. The school is ranked No. 1 in the
country for its undergraduate IB program and No. 2 for its graduate program in
the latest U.S.News &World
Report's college and graduate school guides. The U.S.News guide ranks the Moore School 39th for overall programs.
The
school also has earned top rankings in the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal. A ranking published
by the Wall Street Journal Europe
lists the Moore School's international MBA among the top 15 MBA
programs offered in Europe, and The
Financial Times of
London
has ranked the Moore School of Business
36th in the world.
Moore
's
gift makes her the benefactor of USC's two largest gifts. In 1998, she gave $25
million to USC's
College of
Business Administration
. USC officials
named the school in her honor, making the business school the nation's first
major business school to be named for a woman.
Moore,
who grew up in
Lake City ,
S.C.
, is
executive vice president of Rainwater Inc., one of the nation's largest private
investment firms. Rainwater is engaged primarily in the founding and building of
major companies in the healthcare service, oil service, natural gas, insurance,
and real estate industries.
She
serves on USC's Board of Trustees and is a former member of the USC Educational
Foundation Board. She is founder and chairwoman of the Palmetto Institute, a
private policy research group in South Carolina. Moore earned a bachelor's degree in political
science from USC and an M.B.A. degree from George Washington University.
