Today, Carnegie Mellon announced that it will open a new campus in Miami with support from a $3 billion gift from Ken Griffin, founder and CEO of Citadel.
The gift represents the largest-ever donation by an individual in the history of higher education.
Of the $3 billion gift, $2 billion will support the launch of Carnegie Mellon University Miami.
The remaining $1 billion will go to the university’s Pittsburgh campus. Half will provide “flexible support” for “the university’s highest priorities.”
The other $500 million is earmarked for the School of Computer Science, which will be renamed the Kenneth C. Griffin School of Computer Science.
The 35-acre campus, located in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood, will “invert the traditional higher education model by organizing learning and inquiry around societal challenges rather than academic major,” according to a university press release.
“In Miami, one of the nation’s most dynamic and globally connected cities, [Carnegie Mellon] has an opportunity to pioneer a new mode for higher education, organized on society’s most consequential challenges,” Jahanian said during the event.
The new campus is expected to support more than 3,500 undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral students, along with nearly 300 faculty and over 600 staff members. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2027, and the university expects to enroll graduate students beginning in 2028, setting a goal to operate at full capacity in 2041.
The donation was first announced online at 5 a.m. this morning, followed by an exclusive fireside chat at 11 a.m. in Tepper and a campus-wide celebration on the Cut at 12 p.m.
More than 45 students and 180 other community members — including donors, members of the board of trustees, and elected officials — marked the occasion at the invitation-only event in the Simmons Auditorium at 11 a.m.
Gov. Josh Shapiro, Mayor Corey O’Connor, and County Executive Sara Innamorato attended. Sen. Dave McCormick (R-Pa.), who was scheduled to speak at the event, could not attend.
University President Farnam Jahanian began the program 25 minutes late to grant CNBC anchor Sara Eisen an interview live in front of the invited attendees.
“Carnegie Mellon has always made bold bets at consequential moments. As you know, Carnegie Mellon was founded by Andrew Carnegie to educate sons and daughters of the working class,” Jahanian said during the interview. “We’ve been on this journey for 125 years.”
When asked about rising support for socialism among college students, Griffin noted that higher education is about “academic rigor” at its core.
“There is no point in the history of humanity where socialism has worked,” Griffin said. “Why do we think this is worthy to keep in our classes, in our universities? We need to get back to the basics, back to common sense.”
After the CNBC interview, the agenda proceeded as planned to President Jahanian’s introductory remarks, followed by speeches from Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, Mayor of Pittsburgh Corey O’Connor, and Senator Dave McCormick (the latter being pre-recorded).
The fireside chat with Griffin and Jahanian was moderated by Meredith Meyer Grelli, vice provost for entrepreneurship and associate vice president.
Afterward, students and the university community migrated to the Cut for a celebration, featuring free food and student organization performances. University administration, student leaders, and local politicians gave brief remarks.
Both Jahanian and Griffin emphasized the significance of Griffin’s gift in supporting working-class and immigrant students.
In an interview with The Tartan following the celebration on the Cut, Jahanian stated that one of the “major priorities” for the $500 million donation to the Pittsburgh campus is to “boost access and affordability” for students of all socioeconomic backgrounds.
On Oct. 5 and Oct. 21, Jahanian and other members of the administration will host two town halls to hear out students’ opinions on where the money should be spent.
“We’re engaging the entire community, faculty, staff, alumni, students — because this is their university,” Jahanian said.
On Monday, The Tartan reported that Black and Hispanic student enrollment is at a historic 11-year low — with only 23 students self-identifying as Black, and 99 self-identifying as Hispanic or Latino.
When asked how the administration intends to address this figure and support a socioeconomically diverse student body, Jahanian told The Tartan that the Miami campus represents a unique opportunity to broaden the university’s reach to students from all backgrounds.
“Think about having a campus in Miami, [and] what would that do in terms of expanding opportunities for us to recruit students from the Sun Belt, including Hispanic students,” Jahanian said. “I am so excited about that opportunity to recruit Hispanic students and Black students to all of our campuses. But I think we have a real opportunity in Miami to expand that across the country.”
As Griffin took to the stage during the celebration on the Cut, one student began chanting “Free Palestine.” The student was promptly escorted out of the event by CMUPD.
A student protester is escorted from the event by CMUPD for chanting “Free Palestine.” | Daniel Rios, Staff Photographer
A Harvard alum, Griffin halted his multi-million dollar donations to his alma mater in 2024, criticizing the university for “losing its way” over how it handled antisemitism amid campus protests.
“Will America’s elite university get back to [its] roots of educating American children — young adults — to be the future leaders of our country, or are they going to maintain being lost in the wilderness of microaggressions, a DEI agenda that seems to have no real endgame, and just being lost in the wilderness?” Griffin asked at a 2024 conference in Miami.
Later that year, Griffin attributed campus unrest to a “cultural revolution in American education”, and called upon Harvard to “embrace Western values that have built one of the greatest nations in the world.”
In July, a series of anti-Zionist and other related student messages painted on the Fence sparked controversy across the university community. The university administration opened investigations into 10 of the painters, before dismissing eight of the cases earlier this month.
When asked by The Tartan how this string of messages played into Carnegie Mellon’s purported commitment to “academic rigor,” Griffin did not address the question.
“I hope other universities look at where resources are going and where the students are driving great outcomes and go, ‘I want to look more like Carnegie Mellon,’” he said.
This is a developing story. Check back at the-tartan.org for updates.
Octavia Liku serves as co-News Editor of The Tartan and can be reached at oliku@andrew.cmu.edu.
Claire Thurston serves as co-Editor-in-Chief of The Tartan and can be reached at clairer@cmu.edu.
Contributed reporting by co-Editor-in-Chief Lily Stern and co-News Editor Aren Framil.
