Le Moyne’s largest-ever alumni donation to put name on building

Will also create scholarship fund              

SYRACUSE — A 1966 graduate of Le Moyne College has donated $12 million to the school, representing its largest-ever alumni donation. With the donation, Le Moyne will place a name on its College of Arts and Sciences, and the money will also benefit additional academic elements, per the March 26 announcement. James (Jim) Carroll donated the funding, so the College of Arts and Sciences is now the Dr. James J. ‘66 and Mary A. Carroll College of Arts and Sciences. Le Moyne College President Linda LeMura announced the donation during a campus event that day, the school said.  During his days as a Le Moyne student, Jim Carroll was a double major in history and political science. Carroll recently retired from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs, where he had served as a research associate professor since 1987. “Coming from a modest background, I am humbled and proud to be able to contribute to the future success of Le Moyne, an institution that played an integral role in my personal and professional life,” Jim Carroll said. “The strong Jesuit education I received at Le Moyne stays with me to this day. My career in higher education has allowed me to understand the intrinsic value found in supporting faculty research and teaching and also the great need to provide resources for student scholarships.” 

Additional donation impact

Besides placing the Carrolls’ name on the College of Arts and Sciences, portions of the donation will also support additional academic elements. They include the Dr. James J. ‘66 and Mary A. Carroll Scholarship Fund, which will provide scholarships for students in need of financial assistance who enroll at Le Moyne as majors within the arts and sciences. The funding will also benefit the Dr. James J. Carroll ‘66 Endowed Professor in Arts and Sciences, with preference given for disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. It will also support the Mary A. Carroll Endowed Professor in Arts and Sciences, with preference to a Jesuit who is a member of the faculty. The donation will also support the creation of the Carroll Visiting Scholar program.  In addition, the Carrolls’ gift will help fund the William J. Bosch, S.J. Teaching and Learning Center, which the school announced last week.

Jim Carroll background

Jim Carroll is a native of Binghamton and attended the former St. Patrick’s Academy, per the Le Moyne announcement.  Just two months before he began his studies at Le Moyne, his father passed away, leaving his mother to make the tuition payment. She was able to use her husband’s savings along with some stocks to pay for Carroll’s first year of college. During his time at Le Moyne, he worked multiple jobs both on and off campus to pay for tuition and living expenses, the school said. After graduating from Le Moyne, Carroll then earned his master’s degree in social studies education at Syracuse University in 1970 and his Ph.D. in social sciences at Syracuse’s Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs in 1985.  He taught social studies at Bishop Ludden High School from 1967 to 1973 and at Westhill High School from 1973-1979. He also worked at the Syracuse University School of Education from 1983-1987. Most of Carroll’s career in the 1980s and 90s involved conducting workshops on Project LEGAL a national constitutional law project he developed for elementary and secondary American history teachers and their students in hundreds of adoption schools in 34 states.  In recent decades, he has focused on conducting teacher workshops through his gifted education grants, focusing on public-policy skills for teachers and students in disadvantaged schools primarily in New York City. Le Moyne said. The Carrolls married in 1967 and raised seven children, all of whom went on to professional success in various fields, including clinical psychology, social work, dentistry, education, law, and veterinary medicine.