Newhouse School at Syracuse University gets $75M donation

SYRACUSE — Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications will benefit from a $75 million donation, representing “the largest gift in the university’s 150-year history.”

The Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation on Jan. 13 announced its plan to make the donation.

Donald Newhouse, who graduated from Syracuse in 1951, made the announcement at an event at the Newhouse School on the Syracuse campus.

The gift, which would be “one of the largest ever to any communications school,” will support multiple academic initiatives, under the leadership of the school’s next dean. 

It expands the visions of the school’s two most recent leaders, Syracuse said. David Rubin, who retired in 2008 after 18 years as dean, and Lorraine Branham, who died of cancer last year after nearly 11 years as dean. A national search for the next dean is underway, with the goal of having a new leader in place by July 1 of this year, the start of the new fiscal year.

“I have great confidence that the search committee will find an outstanding successor to David and Lorraine,” Newhouse said. “In this era in which public communications is undergoing continual and radical change, my family and I expect to continue our long-term commitment to ensure that the school my Dad helped found almost 60 years ago remains the leading communications school in the world for another generation.”

Donald Newhouse is an honorary trustee of Syracuse University. His son, Michael, is a voting trustee. 

The Newhouse School is named for Donald Newhouse’s late father, Samuel I. Newhouse, who founded Advance Publications in 1922. His initial gift of $15 million in 1962 — the largest gift in University history at that time — supported the construction of the first of the school’s three buildings, Newhouse 1, which was dedicated in 1964 by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The second building, Newhouse 2, was dedicated in 1974 by William Paley, chairman of the board of CBS. 

With support from the Newhouse Foundation, the third building, Newhouse 3, was dedicated in 2007 by Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts.

Donald Newhouse and his late brother, S.I. Newhouse Jr., were present at all three dedication ceremonies, Syracuse said.