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    The McMaster Department of Philosophy has now put together the following notice commemorating Barry: Barry Allen: A Philosophical Life Barry…

University of Chicago sells its Economics Department for $125 million…

Brian Leiter

…well, it sold the naming rights, but what I'm really curoius about is whether anyone can think of a similar case where an academic department–not a business school, or a law school, or a medical school–sold naming rights to the department?  Given Chicago's singluar responsibility for the neoliberal ideology–the true ideology of capitalism–that is ravaging the world, it seems only fitting, but still, I do wonder, are there any ohter cases where an academic department has been named for a donor?

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28 responses to “University of Chicago sells its Economics Department for $125 million…”

  1. James C. Klagge

    The Charles E. Via, Jr. Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Virginia Tech:
    http://www.cee.vt.edu/

    Reply
  2. Steven Gross

    Cornell's Sage School of Philosophy?

    http://philosophy.cornell.edu/history

    Reply
  3. Mohan Matthen

    The Department of Philosophy at the University of Virginia is called the Corcoran Department of Philosophy. Don't know if it is named after a donor.

    Reply
  4. Shen-yi Liao

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_W._Sage#Involvement_with_Cornell

    "He endowed the Susan Linn Sage School of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences, named after his wife."

    Reply
  5. Brian Leiter

    I should've remembered the Sage School of Philosophy!

    Reply
  6. Frank A.

    Montana State University recently (in effect) sold the naming rights of its computer science department to Greg Gianforte, the now-congressman best known for assaulting a reporter shortly before his election.

    Reply
  7. Larry McCullough

    Departments in medical schools are commonly named for donor, donor family member(s), or someone whom the donor wishes to honr, e.g., current or past faculty member.

    Larry McCullough
    Distinguished Emeritus Professor
    Baylor College of Medicine

    Reply
  8. Steve Sverdlik

    Here at SMU we have two, just in the Dedman College of Liberal Arts: the William Clements Department of History and the Roy Huffington Department of Earth Sciences.

    Reply
  9. Brian Ogilvie

    Virginia has the Corcoran Department of History.

    Reply
  10. Jonathan Birch

    Pittsburgh has the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, whereas Carnegie Mellon has the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

    Reply
  11. Samuel J. Howard

    The Prestage Family Department of Poultry Science at North Carolina State University. The same university has the Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering.

    The Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Southern California.

    Mark H. McCormack Department of Sport Management at UMASS Amherst.

    Reply
  12. Brian Leiter

    I had no idea there were so many named departments out there–though it's striking that they are disproportionately in technical areas (Sage School of philospohy being a notable exception). More examples welcome!

    Reply
  13. Joel Velasco

    The Bob L. Herd Department of Petroleum Engineering at Texas Tech.

    Reply
  14. Emrah Keskin

    NYU's PoliSci is named "Wilf Family Department of Politics." They are real estate developers from Jersey -and I imagine major donors.

    What's more troubling is that some donors dictate ideology and even syllabi to departments as preconditions to contribute (see Koch Family with George Mason's Econ department and their previous attempt to overtake Econ at Florida State.)

    Reply
  15. Roger Albin

    Saul R. Korey Department of Neurology at Albert Einstein School of Medicine. Named after the founding Chair. Here at Michigan, some of the Internal Medicine inpatient services are named after distinguished former faculty. I believe the practice of naming medical school departments after distinguished former faculty is common in some European countries.

    Chicago has the Becker Friedman Institute, formerly the Milton Friedman Institute. I'm told that it was previously and appropriately housed in a building once used by the theology faculty.

    Reply
  16. Brian Leiter

    At least Becker-Friedman was named after academic contributors to the area of research, not after super rich folks! (Though lots of super rich folks contributed to funding it–go figure?)

    Reply
  17. Glenn Branch

    The University of California, Irvine, boasts the Francisco J. Ayala School of Biological Sciences; Ayala is both a distinguished member of the UCI faculty and a generous donor to the university.

    Reply
  18. Roger Albin

    True – but the contributions of the super rich are easy to explain. Friedman's major achievement was to provide an intellectual fig leaf for neoliberal depredation. As you pointed out in your initial post, Friedman was hardly unique among U of C economists in this respect. This is a relatively cheap investment in propagating an ideology congenial to the super rich. To be fair, some of the present U of C economists depart significantly from the neoliberal dogma.

    Reply
  19. Brian Leiter

    I was joking about how to "explain it". It's like that other great mystery, why the filthy rich love the bean-brain Ayn Rand.

    Reply
  20. Sid

    For $200 million, University of Southern California's Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences, which has all the art, science, and humanities departments under it.

    Also, for $100 million, NYU's Tandon School of Engineering.

    Reply
  21. UChicago Grad

    From the U of C's undergraduate humor magazine, the Chicago Shady Dealer:

    "To: The Kenneth C. Griffin University Community
    From: Kenneth Robert C. J. Griffin Zimmer
    Subject: Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Kenneth C. Griffin Economics Kenneth C. Griffin Gift
    Date: Kenneth C, Griffin

    Today, the Kenneth C. Griffin I am pleased to announce that the Kenneth C. Griffin Charitable Fund intends to make a new Kenneth C. Griffin $125 million Kenneth C. Griffin gift to support the Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Economics in expanding its Kenneth C. Griffin leadership in Kenneth C. Griffin education and Kenneth C. Griffin research with wide-ranging public Kenneth C. Griffin impact. The new Kenneth C. Griffin gift will support new Kenneth C. Griffin generations of Kenneth C. Griffin faculty and Kenneth C. Griffin students and the Kenneth C. Griffin impact their Kenneth C. Griffin work can have on fundamental societal Kenneth C. Griffin challenges. This latest Kenneth C. Griffin gift will bring Kenneth C. Griffin Ken Griffin’s total Kenneth C. Griffin giving in support of Kenneth C. Griffin UChicago Economics to nearly Kenneth C. Griffin $150 million. In Kenneth C. Griffin recognition of his Kenneth C. Griffin giving, including the second-largest Kenneth C. Griffin gift in the Kenneth C. Griffin history of Kenneth C. Griffin UChicago, the Kenneth C. Griffin Economics Kenneth C. Griffin Department will be renamed the Kenneth C. Griffin Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Kenneth C. Griffin Economics."

    [It goes on for like another 3 paragraphs.]

    https://www.facebook.com/chicagoshadydealer/posts/10155854815684907

    Reply
  22. Skef

    Alright, this doesn't count. But how can you pass up an opportunity to reference the Fail Room? https://twitter.com/SECcountry/status/921564250581151744

    Reply
  23. Ken Taylor

    Personally, being in Silicon Valley, I've been pushing our department chair to sell naming rights to the five minute break we customarily take after the speaker finishes and the Q&A begins. Can't you see it? Time to take our "Google Five minute Break" after which we will return for questions. A cool 20 million or so is all it would take.

    Reply
  24. Michael B

    AT NYU there is the Tisch School of the Arts, named for donors, the Tisch Family.

    Within Tisch, there is Maurice Kanbar Institute of Film & Television, which contains the Rita and Burton Goldberg Department of Dramatic Writing. Both Kanbar and the Goldbergs gave money to NYU.
    And there is The Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music (he has given them lots of money but he did also study at NYU), which contains The Skirball Center for New Media (I don't know if Skirball gave money to NYU but reading his bio it's not implausible).

    Reply
  25. ElGordo

    John E. Walker Department of Economics at Clemson

    Reply
  26. Grad student

    Charles and louise travers dpt of polisci @ berkeley

    Reply
  27. Ed in LA

    USC's engineering school has the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering, the Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, the Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, and the Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. There may be named departments in other parts of the university as well. There's also the Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health at Columbia.

    Reply
  28. Felix Sadeli

    J Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering at Florida.

    Also at Florida, Warrington College of Business has Heavener School of Business, Fisher School of Accounting, and Hough Graduate School of Business.

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