{"id":225367,"date":"2026-09-24T15:47:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T15:47:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/nike-co-founder-gives-1bn-to-university-of-oregon-in-historic-donation-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T15:47:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T15:47:17","slug":"nike-co-founder-gives-1bn-to-university-of-oregon-in-historic-donation-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/nike-co-founder-gives-1bn-to-university-of-oregon-in-historic-donation-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Nike co-founder gives $1bn to University of Oregon in historic donation – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Phil Knight and wife, Penny, make largest known donation to a public university to fund a new engineering school
Nike co-founder Phil Knight, and his wife, Penny, have donated $1bn to the University of Oregon<\/a> in what the institution described as the \u201clargest gift ever made to a comprehensive public university\u201d.
The donation is intended to be used to establish a new engineering school in Eugene. In a news release seen by the Guardian, the university said the new school would \u201ceducate engineers and applied scientists in bioengineering and other high-demand disciplines, attract faculty and researchers to a growing campus, and accelerate the university\u2019s ability to move discoveries out of the laboratory and into products, therapies, technologies and companies\u201d.
The University of Oregon president, Karl Scholz, said in a statement that the Knights have \u201ca long history of believing in things before they exist\u201d and that \u201cthey did it in 2016, and they are doing it again now, at a scale that is genuinely hard to take in. I am grateful to them, and I am grateful to be here for it.\u201d
Knight, 88, is a graduate of the university. The latest donation brings the Knight family\u2019s known total giving to the University of Oregon to more than $2bn, according to the New York Times<\/a>.
The school said in the news release on Wednesday that the gift is the third commitment the Knights have made at this scale in 10 years, following $500m in 2016 and $500m in 2021 that created and expanded the Knight Campus. The school also said the new engineering school will be located at the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact.
In the announcement, Knight also shared a statement noting that \u201cto make an audacious dream a reality requires more than a vivid imagination\u201d.
\u201cIt also requires the sort of opportunity that our great American universities, both public and private, have historically provided,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is no time to abandon them.\u201d
He added: \u201cPenny and I are grateful for the chance to invest in our most promising young people\u2019s future in this important way.\u201d
Bob Guldberg, vice-president and Robert and Leona DeArmond executive director of the Knight Campus, said in a statement that the creation of a college of engineering \u201cbuilds on the original vision put forward by UO faculty who inspired Phil and Penny to invest in the idea that we can do better translating the great work we do out into the real world\u201d.
\u201cThe Knight Campus stands on the foundation of a remarkable Oregon legacy: the belief that bold innovation can unlock human potential,\u201d Guldberg said. \u201cToday, we carry that same belief forward, applying it to science, technology, and human health.\u201d
Scholz, the university president, said in an interview with the New York Times <\/a>about the donation that \u201cone of the most successful businesspeople in the history of humanity, and one of the most generous philanthropists in the history of humanity, has said higher education is worth an investment of this magnitude.
\u201cAt a time when we\u2019re all feeling a little bit under siege, this is tremendous news,\u201d he said, adding that the gift amounted to \u201ca screaming endorsement of the importance of what we\u2019re doing\u201d.
Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, said in a statement: \u201cThis groundbreaking gift from Phil and Penny Knight stands out for its extraordinary generosity and monumental impact at a public university.
\u201cAs a proud University of Oregon alumnus, I know my alma mater will put this massive investment to great use by educating students who will meet the ongoing need for engineers so essential to the economy in our state and nationwide.\u201d
The news on Wednesday comes as earlier this month it was announced that the Knights were committing<\/a> $1.1bn to Providence St Vincent Medical Center and to Providence Heart Institute to create Oregon\u2019s first hospital <\/a>dedicated exclusively to women\u2019s health.
\u201cPenny and I have always believed that real breakthroughs come from people willing to take on the toughest challenges,\u201d Knight said in a statement<\/a> earlier this month. \u201cProvidence has shown that kind of ambition in cardiovascular care, and we see the same opportunity to do something truly distinctive for women\u2019s health. We\u2019re proud to invest in teams that will change what\u2019s possible for communities across Oregon and beyond.\u201d
Last year, Oregon Health & Science University announced<\/a> that it had received a $2bn commitment from the Knights to its cancer institute, which the university said would \u201ctransform the future of cancer care and set a new standard globally\u201d.<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Phil Knight and wife, Penny, make largest known donation to a public university to fund a new engineering schoolNike co-founder Phil Knight, and his wife, Penny, have donated $1bn to the University of Oregon in what the institution described as the \u201clargest gift ever made to a comprehensive public university\u201d.The donation is intended to be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":225368,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-225367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}