Carnegie Mellon University

November 15, 2013

Dear Members of the CMU Community:

I am pleased to announce that Carnegie Mellon University has received an extraordinary new gift of $67 million from the charitable foundation of CMU alumnus and trustee David A. Tepper. It is the largest gift in CMU’s history from a CMU graduate and the single largest for a building project at CMU.

This new gift, combined with his original gift pledged nine years ago to the university to name the Tepper School of Business, totals a remarkable amount of over $125 million to CMU. This gift will help establish a new university gateway and interactive hub, through the creation of the “David A. Tepper Quadrangle.” Located north of Forbes Avenue near the center of the CMU campus, the first building will, among other things, be the new home for the Tepper School of Business.

This major new academic hub will further enhance and strengthen collaboration among all of CMU’s schools and colleges. The 15th of November marks the 113th Anniversary of the proposal made by Andrew Carnegie in 1900 to the Mayor of Pittsburgh to create a new school that is now known all over the world as Carnegie Mellon University.

As you may know, this week’s presidential inauguration will take place at the Carnegie Music Hall, which is just across the street from where Andrew Carnegie announced his gift to create our university. One hundred and thirteen years later exactly, on November 15, another extraordinary philanthropist of our era, David Tepper, is having a profound impact on Carnegie Mellon by demonstrating his loyalty to his home institution through this new gift.

On behalf of the CMU community, I wish to express my profound gratitude to David for his remarkable demonstration of generosity and for his belief in the growing potential of CMU. David Tepper’s magnificent new gift, supplemented with other gifts from a number of donors, will provide support for the construction of the first new building in the Tepper Quad. This new building will strategically co-locate a variety of university-wide activities to tap into CMU’s interdisciplinary culture, and it will integrate the rich heritage of innovation, collaboration and entrepreneurship from all parts of CMU.

Serving as the new home for CMU’s Tepper School of Business, it will provide more and higher-quality space for current use and future expansion. It will also house CMU’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and the Center for Technology Transfer and Enterprise Creation, while serving as a hub for connecting CMU’s Pittsburgh campuses with its research and teaching activities across the globe. It will house a new large auditorium and classrooms that employ the latest technology for teaching, learning and communication. It will provide strategic links to all of our activities in research, education and entrepreneurship by serving as a focal point for connecting campus-wide efforts nurtured by the newly announced Simon Initiative at Carnegie Mellon. The building also will be the location for a new welcome center for the university. It will showcase the accomplishments of the members of the CMU community, present and past.

This LEED-Gold-certified building will also include elements that enhance the quality of life for all members of the campus, including: work and gathering places for students, staff and faculty; spaces for student projects; a fitness center; and a café. I want to thank David Tepper for his visionary philanthropy, and for his continued commitment to further the impact of this university, and by extension, to further the impact of CMU in Pittsburgh, the region, the nation and the world.

More details are available in the press release at http://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2013/november/nov14_teppergift.html.

With warmest wishes,

Subra Suresh
President, Carnegie Mellon University