Contact:
Jonathan Potts
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For immediate release:
September 25, 2006

Carnegie Mellon Partners With Kauffman Foundation To Promote Entrepreneurship Across Campus

PITTSBURGH—Carnegie Mellon University is partnering with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to make entrepreneurship a common and accessible campus-wide opportunity for students. As part of the foundation's Kauffman Campuses Initiative, Carnegie Mellon was among several colleges, universities and university systems invited to submit proposals for a grant to fund plans to encourage entrepreneurship across their campuses.

The Kauffman Foundation began the initiative in 2003 by awarding $25 million to eight schools that provided entrepreneurship education within their liberal arts, engineering and other non-business programs. The foundation is now committed to giving an additional $35 million to colleges and universities across the country.

"The invitation to participate in the Kauffman Campuses Initiatives is a great honor for any university. The grant would give a tremendous boost to Carnegie Mellon's vigorous programs for promoting entrepreneurship," said Carnegie Mellon Provost and Senior Vice President Mark Kamlet.

The prospective Kauffman Campuses schools were selected based on criteria that included the ability to generate a partnership with other foundations and funders, and the potential to create new representative models.

"Our initiative is creating a cultural change and making the entire university system more entrepreneurial," said Kauffman CEO Carl Schramm. "We want all students, not just those in business schools, to see the value of thinking like entrepreneurs. We want them to be able to recognize and seize opportunity when it presents itself, no matter what field they find themselves in."

Carnegie Mellon was given a planning grant to develop its proposal, which will be presented to an independent panel of judges in December. Each participating school is eligible to receive a grant if the judges determine that its proposal is innovative and sustainable. The grant amount will be based on each school's commitment to entrepreneurship education across all academic fields, its unique needs and the scope of its proposal.

"We're looking forward to the presentations and the subsequent programs that will come out of those proposals," said Judith Cone, Kauffman Foundation vice president of entrepreneurship. "We know from our previous Kauffman Campuses that students benefit from learning to think entrepreneurially. It helps them see what's possible when one thinks innovatively about combining their passion and resources to create opportunity."

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About Carnegie Mellon: Carnegie Mellon is a private research university with a distinctive mix of programs in engineering, computer science, robotics, business, public policy, fine arts and the humanities. More than 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students receive an education characterized by its focus on creating and implementing solutions for real problems, interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation. A small student-to-faculty ratio provides an opportunity for close interaction between students and professors. In addition to its 140-acre campus in Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon has branch campuses in Silicon Valley, Calif.; Doha, Qatar; and Adelaide, Australia. It has also established educational and research partnerships with institutions around the world, including programs in Brazil, England, Germany, Greece, India, Korea, Mexico, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland and Taiwan. While technology is pervasive at Carnegie Mellon, the university is also distinctive among leading research universities for the world-renowned programs in its College of Fine Arts.

About the Kauffman Foundation: The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City, Mo., is a private, nonpartisan foundation that works with partners to advance entrepreneurship in America and improve the education of children and youth. The Kauffman Foundation was established in the mid-1960s by late entrepreneur and philanthropist Ewing Marion Kauffman. Information about the Kauffman Foundation is available at www.kauffman.org.