September 13, 2006 | The University
Philanthropist, financial advisor and investment manager William E. Macaulay is giving $30 million–the largest donation in the history of The City University of New York– for the purchase of a building in a landmark district on Manhattan’s Upper West Side that will become the permanent home for the CUNY Honors College, and to add support to its endowment, Chancellor Matthew Goldstein announced today.
Mr. Macaulay is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of First Reserve Corporation. Specializing exclusively in the energy industry, First Reserve is one of the ten largest private equity firms in the world with $12.5 billion under management, including $7.8 billion in its most recent fund, Fund XI.
William and Linda Macaulay with Chancellor Goldstein
Mr. Macaulay’s gift for the purchase of the Steinhardt Building, a Gothic revival structure at 35 West 67th Street, currently the home of the Makor and Daytime@ programs of the 92nd Street Y, will provide the Honors College with state-of-the-art classroom space, a lecture hall, seminar and meeting rooms, administrative offices, a dining hall and other common gathering space for students. (Click here for high resolution images.)
Chancellor Goldstein said he will recommend to the CUNY Board of Trustees a resolution for their consideration designating the William E. Macaulay Honors College of The City University of New York when the board meets on September 25, 2006.
Mr. Macaulay said: “One of the most important things we, as parents, and as a society, can do is to give our youth the best possible education. I want to help ensure that young people today can get a high quality education just as I received at CUNY some four decades ago. The turnaround at CUNY over the past several years under Matt Goldstein has given me the confidence and inspiration to help support the University through this gift.”
Chancellor Matthew Goldstein said: “The CUNY Honors College has become a magnet for the city’s finest students. Bill’s extraordinarily generous gift will make possible a permanent home for the Honors College, in a neighborhood that includes some of our city’s most prominent arts and cultural institutions such as Lincoln Center and the nearby Museum of Natural History and the New York Historical Society.”
Board of Trustees Chair Benno C. Schmidt Jr. said: “Mr. Macaulay’s generosity comes at a time when the University is seeing record enrollments and highly accomplished students, including numerous winners of national and competitive awards. This pioneering gift sends a signal of support all across America that CUNY is the place for the best and brightest.”
With the addition of Mr. Macaulay’s gift, the Honors College has now raised nearly $55 million in private donations from individuals, corporations and foundations since its founding in 2001.
Constructed in 1904, the Steinhardt Building was for many years the home of the Swiss Benevolent Society. It was carefully restored and renovated in 1999 by philanthropist Michael Steinhardt, who donated it to the 92nd Street Y in 2001.
Mr. Macaulay, a 1966 Honors graduate of City College, where he majored in Economics at what is now Baruch College, is a member of the CUNY Business Leadership Council. He holds an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he has served as a member of the Executive Board. He was with Oppenheimer and Co., Inc., from 1972 to 1982, where he served as Director of Corporate Finance with responsibility for investing Oppenheimer’s capital in private equity transactions. He also served as a General Partner and member of the Management Committee of Oppenheimer & Co., as well as President of Oppenheimer Energy Corporation.
Mr. Macaulay was a co-founder of First Reserve in 1983, where he is responsible for supervision of all aspects of the firm’s investment program and strategy, as well as overall management of the firm. Mr. Macaulay serves, or has served, as a director on the boards of ten of the world’s 50 largest oilfield service companies with public market capitalizations in excess of $1 billion.
The CUNY Honors College is a flagship program of the University designed to raise educational standards and encourage university-wide collaboration and excellence. It has attracted students who have demonstrated scholastic strength and broad intellectual curiosity through their high school academic records, standardized test scores, extracurricular involvement and other academic criteria. The Honors College draws on the vast resources of CUNY and New York’s cultural, scientific, government, and business communities to provide its students a broad-based and challenging liberal arts education.
The mean College Admissions Average has increased steadily over the years to its highest point of 93.11 for the current enrolled freshman class. The mean SAT score has increased from 1362 for admitted freshmen in 2005 to 1376 in 2006. Applications for admission have also increased, from 2,304 in Fall 2005 to 3,175 for Fall 2006, an increase of nearly 40 percent.
From its inaugural class of 208 students at five campuses in 2001, the Honors College has grown to 1,266 students at seven campuses this year. The program’s retention rate ranges between 88 and 93 percent, which equals or exceeds that of many Ivy League institutions.
Chancellor Goldstein noted that “having its own home will enable the Honors College to strengthen and enhance its cross-campus collaborative and interdisciplinary activities, which are key elements of the program.”
The participating CUNY Honors College campuses are Baruch College, Brooklyn College, City College, Hunter College, Lehman College, Queens College, and the College of Staten Island.
The CUNY Honors College is designed to recruit more of the city’s most talented students and showcase the University’s return to excellence. A stellar example of the students who are attracted to the Honors College is David Bauer, winner of the $100,000 Intel Science Talent Search (the “Nobel Prize” of high school science). Given his choice of premier universities, David selected the CUNY Honors College program at City College. Honors College students, who are designated University Scholars, receive full financial support, including free tuition and a $7,500 study grant to cover the cost of educationally enriching experiences including study abroad and unpaid internships. They also receive free laptops and a Cultural Passport that provides free or discounted access to the city’s cultural riches, including concerts, opera, dance, theater, museums and other cultural, historic and scientific institutions.
University Scholars take a sequence of four interdisciplinary seminars with a special focus on New York City. The seminars combine scholarly activity with experiential learning, as well as collaborative research projects designed to stimulate student engagement with and understanding of the culture, history, institutions, and people of New York. Each student must also complete a minimum of thirty hours of community service before graduation.
The Honors College offers internships in the city’s business, scientific, governmental and cultural communities; and study abroad at sites that range from Florence, Italy to Australia, India, China, and the Galapagos Islands.
About 30% of the students enrolled in the academic year 2005-2006 were immigrants. More than 40% were members of minority groups. Many of the 189 graduates in the Class of 2005, the first graduating class of the Honors College, garnered awards, grants, and honors in the form of scholarships, fellowships, and other prizes. They have been accepted to leading graduate and professional schools and received employment offers from major firms and corporations.
The transaction was arranged by CB Richard Ellis (CBRE), the world’s largest commercial real estate services firm. CBRE’s Brian D. Gell, Vice Chairman; Timothy E. Sheehan, Senior Vice President; Edward E. Midgley, First Vice President and Steven Robinson, Associate represented the 92nd Street Y in the sale of 35 West 67th Street. The City University of New York was advised by CB Richard Ellis’s Stephen B. Siegel, Chairman of Global Brokerage; David Hollander, Senior Vice President and Sacha Zarba, Senior Associate.
The City University of New York is the nation’s largest urban public university: eleven senior colleges, six community colleges, the CUNY Honors College, the Graduate School and University Center, the Graduate School of Journalism, the Law School and the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education. The University serves more than 226,000 degree-credit students and 230,000 adult, continuing and professional education students. College Now, the University’s academic enrichment program for 32,500 high school students is offered at CUNY campuses and more than 200 high schools throughout the five boroughs of the City of New York. The University has launched an on-line baccalaureate degree through the School of Professional Studies and a new Teacher Academy offering free tuition for highly motivated mathematics and science majors who seek teaching careers in the city’s public schools.
About the 92nd Street Y: Founded in 1874 by a group of visionary Jewish leaders, the 92nd Street Y has grown into a wide-ranging cultural, educational and community center serving people of all races, faiths and backgrounds. The 92nd Street Y’s mission is to enrich the lives of the over 300,000 people who visit each year—both in person and through Live from NY’s 92nd Street Y™ the Y’s satellite broadcast program. The organization’s East Side headquarters (1395 Lexington Avenue) and West Side outpost, the Steinhardt Building (35 West 67th Street), offer comprehensive performing arts, film and spoken word events; courses in the humanities, the arts, personal development and Jewish culture; activities and workshops for children, teenagers and parents; and health and fitness programs for people of every age. Committed to making its programs available to everyone, the 92nd Street Y awards over $1 million in scholarships annually and reaches out to 7,000 public school children through fully-subsidized arts education programs. For more information, please visit www.92Y.org.
About CB Richard Ellis: CB Richard Ellis Group, Inc. (NYSE:CBG), a FORTUNE 1000 company headquartered in Los Angeles, is the world’s largest commercial real estate services firm (in terms of 2005 revenue). The Company serves real estate owners, investors and occupiers through more than 350 offices (including affiliate and partner offices) worldwide. CB Richard Ellis offers strategic advice and execution for property sales and leasing; corporate services; property, facilities and project management; mortgage banking; investment management; appraisal and valuation; and research and consulting. Founded in 1906, CB Richard Ellis marks a century of excellence in real estate services this year. Please visit our Web site at www.cbre.com.