Businessman Jeff Ubben has made one of the largest-ever contributions to Northwestern University for student scholarships.
On Monday, the university announced the $50 million estate commitment by Ubben and his wife Laurie that will make college affordable and accessible by covering the cost of education for undergraduate, graduate and professional school students.
The gift will provide scholarship and financial support to low and middle-income families and first-generation college students.
“Making Northwestern accessible to talented students from every walk of life is essential to our efforts to build the most vibrant academic community possible,” Northwestern President Morton Schapiro said.
The gift will count toward We Will. The Campaign for Northwestern, that has created 424 new endowed scholarships and fellowships to date.
Earlier, the Ubbens’ have contributed $5.5 million to Institute for Sustainability and Energy and a total of $3 million to Northwestern Athletics and Recreation to establish the Sullivan-Ubben Head Men’s Basketball Coaching position.
“Laurie and I can think of nothing more worthy than to make a Northwestern degree accessible to as many outstanding students as possible,” Jeff Ubben said.
Last year, politician and businessman Michael R. Bloomberg donated $1.8 billion dollars to Johns Hopkins University to provide financial aid to undergraduate students from low- and middle-income families. Till date, it is one of the largest ever gift to a single university in the country’s history.