Washington
U. Of Washington & Villanova Given Historic Multimillion-Dollar Gifts
Villanova University has received a $40 million anonymous gift to help launch its new $1.25 billion … [+]
October has shaped up to be a very good month for higher education philanthropy. This past week, Villanova University and the University of Washington have received private gifts of $40 million and $45 million, respectively, adding to a lengthy list of historic donations given to colleges and universities this month.
Villanova University
Villanova University received a gift of $40 million from an anonymous donor as part of Espiritus Nova: The Campaign for Villanova University, which was launched on October 5. The donation is the second largest individual gift in Villanova’s history and helps kick off its new capital campaign, which has a fundraising goal of $1.25 billion.
“This generous gift will strengthen our ability to advance Villanova’s educational mission and play a part in achieving our bold plans for the Villanova community set out in our Strategic Plan, Rooted. Restless.,” said University President Peter M. Donohue, in a news release. “I could not be more grateful for the continued belief and investment in the Villanova experience.”
The gift will be used to support the president’s strategic initiative fund, through which the president of the university can direct funding for priorities that include new academic programs, capital improvements and enhancements to student support.
University of Washington
At the University of Washington, a $45 million bequest from the estate of Stan and Alta Barer was received by the UW School of Law. The gift, described by the university as one of the largest bequests in its history, will be used to expand the Barer Institute for Leadership in Law & Global Development, which the couple helped establish originally as the Barer Institute for Law & Global Human Services with a donation of $4 million in 2008.
The gift will be used to support several priorities, including recruitment of additional international fellows, addition of more scholarships for students, creation of an endowed faculty chair to lead the institute, and enhancement of the institute’s global impact.
According to the university, the gift will allow the Barer Institute “to expand its work with mid-career attorneys from developing countries, enabling them to come to Washington state and then return to their homes to improve health outcomes, advocate for law and justice, boost education and spur economic development.”
“We are honored to extend Stan and Alta’s inspiring legacy of global leadership development with the help of this transformative investment,” said UW President Ana Mari Cauce, in a news release. “The work of the Barer Institute to cultivate talented mid-career attorneys for the benefit of their home countries and the world is one of our law school’s most innovative and effective programs, and we are delighted to be able to expand its reach.”
Stanley H. Barer was a University of Washington alum, earning both his undergraduate and law degree there. A well-recognized attorney nationally, he helped write the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
He served as a UW regent from 2004 to 2012 and was also a member of the university’s foundation board. Barer was given the 2021 Gates Volunteer Service Award, the university’s highest honor for volunteer service, prior to his passing in 2021. His wife, Alta, who preceded him in death in 2019, was also active in advocating and fundraising for the university.
Trinity Rodman signs record deal with Washington Spirit
USWNT forward Trinity Rodman signed a three-year deal with the NWSL’s Washington Spirit. The deal makes Rodman the highest-paid female footballer in the world.
unbranded – Sport
Washington Spirit goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury has announced that she and her husband Matt are expecting a baby in July.
The couple made the announcement in a video on the Spirit’s social media channels, holding a baby goalkeeper jersey on the pitch at Audi Field.
Kingsbury becomes the most recent Spirit star to go on maternity leave, following defender Casey Krueger, midfielder Andi Sullivan and forward Ashley Hatch.
Sullivan gave birth to daughter Millie in July, while Hatch welcomed her son Leo in January.
Krueger announced she was pregnant with her second child in October.
Kingsbury has served as the Spirit’s starting goalkeeper since 2018, and has been named the NWSL Goalkeeper of the Year twice (2019 and 2021).
The 34-year-old has two caps with the U.S. women’s national team, and was named to the 2023 World Cup roster.
The club captain will leave a major void for the Spirit, who have finished as NWSL runner-up in back-to-back seasons.
Sandy MacIver and Kaylie Collins are expected to compete for the starting role while Kingsbury is on maternity leave.
The Spirit kick off their 2026 campaign on March 13 against the Portland Thorns.
YAKIMA, Wash. — Yakima could soon take a major step toward redesigning Sixth Avenue after the Washington State Public Works Board awarded the city a $985,600 loan.
The loan was approved for the design engineering phase of the Sixth Avenue project. The funding can also be used along Sixth Avenue for utility replacement and updated ADA use.
The Yakima City Council must decide whether to accept the award. If the council accepts it, the city’s engineering work will move forward with the design of Sixth Avenue.
The cost of installing trolley lines is excluded from the plan. The historic trolleys would need to raise the funds required to add trolley lines.
The award is scheduled to be discussed during next week’s City Council meeting.
Microsoft will ramp up its investment in the University of Washington.
Brad Smith, the company’s president, made the announcement at a press conference with University of Washington President Robert Jones on Tuesday.
That means hiring more UW graduates as interns at Microsoft, he said.
And he said all students, faculty, and researchers should have access to free, or at least deeply-discounted, AI.
“ Some of it is compute that Microsoft is donating, and some of it is pursuant to an agreement where, believe me, we give the University of Washington probably the best pricing that anybody’s gonna find anywhere,” Smith said. He assured the small group of reporters present that it would be “many millions of dollars of additional computational resources.”
The announcement today didn’t include any specific numbers.
But Smith said Microsoft has already invested $165 million in the UW over several decades.
He pointed to Jones’ vision to spur “radical collaborations with businesses and communities to advance positive change,” and eliminate “any artificial barriers between the university and the communities it serves.”
Microsoft’s goal is for AI to help UW researchers solve some of the world’s biggest problems without introducing new ones.
At Tuesday’s announcement, several research students were present to demonstrate how AI supports their work.
Amelia Keyser-Gibson is an environmental scientist at the UW. She’s using AI to analyze photographs of vines, to find which adapt best to climate change.
It’s a paradox: AI produces carbon emissions. At the same time, it’s also a new tool to help reduce them.
So how do those things square for Keyser-Gibson?
“ That’s a great question, and honestly, I don’t know the answer to that,” she said. “I’m highly aware that there’s a lot of environmental impact of using AI, but what I can say is that this has allowed us to make research innovations that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise.”
“If we had had to manually annotate every single image that would’ve been an undergrad doing that for hours,” Keyser-Gibson continued. “And we didn’t have the budget. We didn’t have the manpower to do that.”
“AI exists. If we don’t use it as researchers, we’re gonna fall behind.”
Microsoft reports on its own carbon emissions. But like most AI companies, it doesn’t reveal everything.
That’s one reason another UW student named Zhihan Zhang is using AI to estimate how much energy AI is using.
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