Dive Brief:
- Johns Hopkins University is getting a choice location near Washinton's Capitol Hill with its $372.5 million purchase of the Newseum, a museum for the news industry, The Washington Post reported. It will use the sale of other buildings in the district, a donation from alumni billionaire Michael Bloomberg and its own money to fund the purchase.
- The Baltimore-based university will house graduate programs in international studies, business, nursing and the arts and sciences in the building as well as forums and other events. A remodel set for fall 2020 will tailor around 400,000 square feet for its use. The building also includes restaurant and residential space.
- In a statement, the university called the deal a "transformative moment" that puts its "research and expertise in the midst of national and global decision-making." It has 3,300 faculty, students and staff in the district.
Dive Insight:
While many colleges are struggling with declines in enrollment and funding — with several even closing as a result — others like Johns Hopkins are expanding their campuses and raising soaring amounts of money.
Among the recent, more elaborate new facilities is the $30 million Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University, the University of Utah's $45 million Lassonde Studios and the University of Iowa's Visual Arts Building, which was completed in October 2016.
In 2017, Cornell University opened the first phase of its $2 billion, 12-acre Cornell Tech in New York City. Meanwhile, Georgia Institute of Technology in September announced plans to grow its footprint in Atlanta with a 400,000-square-foot complex for graduate and executive education in industrial engineering and business, part of a $200 million development phase.
Fundraising at the largest U.S. colleges and universities is booming. Harvard University announced in September that it raised a record $9.6 billion in a five-year capital campaign, more than $3 billion over its goal. Stanford University had the largest prior capital campaign, raising $6.2 billion over five years ending in 2011. The University of California, Los Angeles reported in July that it reached its $4.2 billion fundraising goal 18 months ahead of schedule.
Giving to colleges and universities increased 6% from 2016 to 2017, according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy, with total giving at $43.6 billion — the most since the annual survey began in 1957. Most institutions in the survey's top 10 were large private colleges, and those in the top 20 raised more than one-quarter of the funds collected by the 3,700 institutions polled.