$20 million given to Montclair State

An anonymous donor has given $20 million to Montclair State University, the largest donation the school has ever received.

The money, announced Wednesday, will be earmarked for the university's business school, including academic, experiential, and skills-development programs.

"It is tremendously important. It really is transformative for us. Every gift is welcome. Every gift of any size is welcome, and any gift of any size is useful," university president Susan A. Cole said. "But a gift of this nature is really transformative. It really does enable us to invest in sustainable quality. And that makes it particularly important."

Cole said the terms of the gift are confidential, including details such as whether the money goes into an endowment or is to be used in its entirety.

She said the only programmatic condition on the gift is that it be used for the business school; how exactly the money is used is up to administrators.

Cole said some of the money would go toward educational programs, but she also hopes to further develop business skills offerings, citing communication, data literacy, teamwork, leadership, and decision-making.

"The educational knowledge is obviously critical, but then there are all those other skills that are necessary if [students] are going to succeed in the real business world," Cole said.

She also hopes to increase ties to business, such as developing new internships and collaborations between faculty and private enterprise. Such partnerships, she said, "bring students together with the real world of how business practice is emerging in today's economy."

The donation comes amid change and growth for the 2,500-student business school. A new dean, Greg Cant, started last week, and a 143,000-square-foot building opens in September.

That building, funded by more than $46.8 million in state money from a 2012 bond referendum, includes a financial trading floor, 150-seat lecture hall, and market research and analysis lab space.

The North Jersey university also received more than $39 million for a 100,000-square-foot center for environmental and life sciences, which will also open this fall.

Montclair State has been growing in recent years, with enrollment increasing 28 percent over the last decade. Last year, the school had slightly more than 20,000 students, 80 percent of whom were undergraduates. Enrollment will set records this fall, the university projects.

But as Montclair State and other public four-year schools in New Jersey, including Rowan and Stockton Universities, have grown, flat or declining state higher education funding has strained their finances. To stay affordable and accessible, the colleges have had to continue to raise tuition, and many are looking to philanthropy to help make up the gap.

In the latest round of cuts, the state's budget for the 2015-16 fiscal year reduces direct operating funding for Montclair State by 7.1 percent. Cole said tuition and fees will likely have to increase, but no decision has been made.

"The good news is that our direct operating support is now so small that a large percentage cut means less than it used to," she said, laughing slightly. "And by that I mean, just to make it real for you, 15 years ago . . . we got $4,600 in direct operating support per student.

"That was a very modest figure at that time. In September, it will be $1,800 per student. That is not a modest figure. That is a paltry figure."

In that environment, donations from individuals, organizations, and corporations becomes more important. And $20 million is particularly sizable for Montclair State, which received just under $10 million in donations in the 2014-15 year.

"We absolutely need funding of this kind in order to support the high-quality educational opportunities that are necessary for us as a nation, if we are going to be prosperous. There has been an abandonment of public higher education, and particularly in New Jersey, and you can see it in the high tuition rates that we have in this state," Cole said.

"So, yes, we do need to be out there finding the private citizens, alumni, foundations, and corporations who believe in the mission of public higher education and who are willing to help us in that mission. Which is why this gift is so important to us."

Other schools have also increased their fund-raising efforts, and Rutgers University in January announced the completion of its "Our Rutgers, Our Future" campaign, which raised $1.04 billion in 71/2 years. That included $40.6 million from an anonymous donor who made multiple donations.

The largest gift in Rutgers' history came from that donor, who gave a $27 million challenge grant in 2011 toward establishing 18 new endowed chairs. (Academic chairs require $3 million endowments, so the donor will match every $1.5 million raised with an additional $1.5 million.)

Rutgers raised a record $148.4 million in the 2013-14 year, and will break that by more than 25 percent when 2014-15 donations are fully tallied, said Nevin E. Kessler, president of the Rutgers University Foundation.

Rowan has recently hired a new fund-raising chief and has received several high-profile gifts in recent years, including a $15 million from the Rowan family in the last fiscal year. Rowan renamed its college of engineering after Henry M. Rowan in recognition of that gift; he also gave the $100 million in 1992 that led Glassboro State to rename itself.

"You're going to see a bigger emphasis on building philanthropy programs," said R.J. Tallarida Jr., Rowan's vice president for university advancement.

"Across the country, we are seeing bigger commitments . . . into building, investing in the advancement and the fund-raising programs," he said. "Philanthropy is going to be significantly expanded at a lot of the schools."