Dive Summary:
- A $50 million donation to the University of Michigan's graduate writing program by Helen Zell, wife of billionaire real estate mogul Sam Zell, will be officially announced Thursday.
- Zell earned her English degree at the school in 1964 and has made smaller donations totaling over $10 million, but her current donation is said to be the largest gift ever given to such a program and is unusual during a time when most major higher ed donations are going to the sciences.
- The gift is the third-largest the university has ever received and comes from the Zell Family Foundation, which also funds a bonus year of the program referred to on campus as the "Zellowship."
From the article:
... Helen Zell, who earned her English degree at Michigan in 1964, has been supporting the Michigan program with smaller gifts totaling more than $10 million over more than a decade. Five long bookshelves, nearly covering an entire wall of her Chicago apartment, are filled with books written by the graduate program's faculty and alumni, she said, and she looks forward to adding more. Graduates include writers Elizabeth Kostova, Hanna Pylvainen and Jesymn Ward. ...