Phil and Penny Knight are giving the University of Oregon $1 billion to create the Knight College of Engineering, the largest gift in the school’s history. The university has not offered a traditional engineering degree; the college will broaden its work beyond bioengineering.
The university says the gift is also the largest ever given to a comprehensive public university. It is expected to help fund faculty, academic programs and research; specific degree offerings and a launch timeline have not been announced. The Knights gave $500 million in 2016 to establish the Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact and another $500 million later to expand it.
A week earlier, the couple announced a separate $1.1 billion donation to Providence St. Vincent Medical Center and the Providence Heart Institute to establish Oregon’s first hospital dedicated to women’s health and expand cardiac care and patient-support services.
