The nation's universities are increasingly benefiting from the largess of alumni who went into hedge funds.
The latest school to benefit is Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, which just received $55 million, its largest ever donation, by David A. Tepper and his wife, Marlene. The university's Graduate School of Industrial Administration will be renamed the David A. Tepper School of Business in recognition of the gift.
Mr. Tepper is president and founder of Appaloosa Management, Chatham, N.J., a $3 billion hedge fund manager. A Pittsburgh native, Mr. Tepper earned a master of science degree in industrial administration from CMU in 1982.
"The outstanding education I received at Carnegie Mellon gave me the ability to analyze investment options in such a unique way that I am still capitalizing on what I learned there to this day," said Mr. Tepper in an article on CMU's website.
Mr. Tepper's old professor, Kenneth B. Dunn, dean of the business school, said of his former pupil in the same article: "We know students are best prepared for success in business if they develop strong analytical decision-making skills, and David Tepper is a perfect example of the kind of achiever we seek to educate at Carnegie Mellon."
The university's business school will use $5 million of Mr. Tepper's donation to attract and retain professors and to enhance student and alumni experiences with the business school. The remaining $50 million will be added to CMU's regular endowment, which totaled about $87 million before the Tepper gift.
