Pitt receives $125 million gift

Pitt announced a record-breaking donation on Thursday, a $125 million gift that will boost the… Pitt announced a record-breaking donation on Thursday, a $125 million gift that will boost the University’s capital campaign by about 7 percent. It’s Pitt’s largest individual gift to date.

The gift comes from William S. Dietrich II, a Pitt alunmus and former steel executive, who gave $265 million to Carnegie Mellon earlier this month.

Pitt said the gift will become operational upon Dietrich’s death. It will boost the University’s “Building Our Future Together” capital campaign past the $1.85 billion mark, edging it closer to its $2 billion goal. The campaign disperses funds for use in scholarships and fellowships and by faculty.

The gift is one of the 10 largest made by an individual to a public university in the U.S.

In response to the gift, Pitt’s Board of Trustees will introduce a resolution to rename the University’s School of Arts & Sciences the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences in honor of the donor’s father. This follows CMU’s decision to rename its College of Humanities & Social Sciences after Dietrich’s mother, which the university made after the announcement of Dietrich’s gift to the school.

Pitt spokesman Robert Hill said that the renaming of the school was not a stipulation of the gift, but the University felt it an appropriate form of recognition.

Hill said that the money will support Pitt’s School of Arts & Sciences, but there is flexibility as to the ways the funds will be spent. He said he expects that over time, there will be additional scholarships and fellowships available to students as a result of the gift.

Dietrich, who has a long history with the University, said in a press release that he considered the gift an investment. After earning his M.A. and Ph.D. in political science at Pitt, he went on to become part of Pitt’s Board of Trustees in 1991 and served as the Board’s chairman from 2001 to 2003.

“As a graduate who personally benefited from my own studies at Pitt, I want to ensure that the University can continue to provide educational opportunities of the highest quality to its undergraduate and graduate citizens,” he said.