Simons Foundation gives historic $500 million gift to Stony Brook University

Stony Brook University received a "historic and transformational" gift of $500 million Thursday, a monumental donation that school officials say will propel the university into the ranks of elite colleges and fund projects with benefits that stretch from Long Island to across the world.

The donation — which school officials said is the nation's largest-ever unrestricted endowment gift — came from the Simons Foundation. The foundation is headed by billionaire hedge fund manager James Simons, who came to Stony Brook University in 1968 where he headed the math department and met his wife, Marilyn.

"I just love Stony Brook. It's just a wonderful institution in every respect," said James Simons during a ceremony announcing the gift at the Simons Foundation in Manhattan. "Stony Brook also gave me a chance to lead — and so it has been deeply rewarding to watch the university grow and flourish even more.”

The school will use the investment income for student scholarships, new academic fields and research, endowed professorships, innovative research and clinical care, officials said.

The Simonses, who made their first donation of $750 to the school in 1983, recently donated $100 million to help the university serve as anchor of the planned New York Climate Exchange, a research and study center on Governors Island in New York Harbor. The endowment money will not go toward that project.

The couple, individually and through their foundation, have contributed over $1.2 billion to Stony Brook, ranging from medical school programs, centers for math, physics and economics, and initiatives to foster diversity in STEM and female mentorship.

Stony Brook President Maurie McInnis was joyful, if not a bit overwhelmed, by the generosity of the gift.

"I cannot overestimate the difference that a $500 million unrestricted gift will have, for Stony Brook now and far into the future," she said. 

Stony Brook University was founded in 1957 and has a student body of more than 25,000 students. The school offers a mix of 60 majors and 80 minor subjects. It is considered a flagship in the SUNY system.

McInnis — who in a letter to the campus community called the gift "historic and transformational" — said she envisioned a future Stony Brook as one in which researchers have access to the best labs and equipment they need to chase the next discovery. 

Leaders, she added, will be clamoring to come to the university because they know they will have the resources they need to make a difference.

Gift that keeps giving

Gov. Kathy Hochul described the endowment as a gift that keeps on giving, in that the state will match a portion of the money. The Simons gift, distributed over seven years, is expected to grow the endowment by $1 billion by drawing in further donations, as well as state funds from a new matching program that gives $1 in state funds for every $2 in private gifts to the endowments of the state’s four university centers.

The university's current endowment is $370 million, which is a low figure compared to other longer-established universities.

Such a large gift of money is rare among higher-learning institutions, especially among public colleges that are partially funded by the government, said Terri Watson, associate professor of educational leadership at the City University of New York.

Stony Brook and other public colleges have a reputation for helping working-class and poor students obtain a degree and elevate their economic status, Watson said. But these students have faced challenges due to rising tuition, she said. 

About half of Stony Brook’s undergraduate students who are New York residents pay no tuition, according to school officials. They noted that New York State provides less than 18% of the school's annual operating budget.

"Five hundred million dollars is incredible," Watson said, adding that the money could help lighten the financial burden on needy students and elevate the institution. "It can do good across the board. I think it will help with enrollment and the rigor of programs."

'An expression of faith'

Simons Foundation president David Spergel said the gift "is an expression of faith in Stony Brook's leadership, its faculty and students." 

During Thursday's ceremony, Marilyn Simons recalled her days as a Stony Brook student, attending calculus classes at 8 a.m. She received financial aid and picked up odd jobs such as working in a kosher deli, she said. 

She was the first woman in her family to attend college, and she received a doctorate in economics from Stony Brook.

In 2019, she made a personal donation of $25 million to the university to spur more representation of women and individuals of color in economics.

"I have a lot of thanks for Stony Brook and the State of New York for opening higher education and making it affordable and accessible to students like me," she said. And, she said, "I met my husband there."

With Carol Polsky

By Craig Schneider

craig.schneider@newsday.com@Scraigo

Craig Schneider is a Long Island native and Stony Brook University alumnus. He joined Newsday as a general assignment reporter in January 2018 after 20 years at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.