George Lucas to donate $175 million to USC

[BERIGAN]

It seems to me Lucas could do more good with that kind of money than build a nicer film school......

George Lucas Donates USC's Largest Single Gift

By Stuart Silverstein, Times Staff Writer

4:20 PM PDT, September 19, 2006

"Star Wars" creator George Lucas, through a foundation, plans to make a blockbuster donation to USC of $175 million — the university's biggest single gift ever — to build a new home for its prestigious film school.

The landmark gift from the Lucasfilm Foundation builds on Hollywood's historical support for the film school, which was established in 1929 as a collaboration between USC and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The new 137,000-square-foot facility, along with modernizing and expanding the film school's cramped facilities, is believed to be intended to merge Hollywood storytelling skills with emerging digital technologies.

University officials, who have worked quietly on the project in recent months, announced the gift this afternoon. Earlier in the day, in a separate ceremony, Lucas was named the grand marshal of the Rose Parade in Pasadena.

A formal groundbreaking for the new facility is planned for Oct. 4.

"I discovered my passion for film and making movies when I was a student at USC in the 1960s, and my experiences there shaped the rest of my career," Lucas said in a statement. "I'm also an ardent advocate for education at all levels and encouraging young people to pursue their ambitions by learning. I'm very fortunate to be in a position to combine my two passions and to be able to help USC continue molding the futures of the moviemakers of tomorrow."

In one behind-the-scenes move this spring, USC officials altered the university's bylaws partly to clear the way for the formal name of the film school to be changed. It will be revised from the USC School of Cinema-Television to the School of Cinematic Arts — a switch possibly intended to accommodate the institution's growing focus on newer entertainment technologies.

USC tipped its hand in recent days by sending ground-breaking ceremony invitations — albeit ones that kept the donor's name secret — to civic leaders, university officials and professors.

The invitation credits USC with "a long and proud history of inspiring and teaching the artists, scholars and entrepreneurs who shape film, television and interactive media in the 20th century. This fall, we invite you to join us in carrying that tradition through the 21st century as we celebrate and break ground on our 137,000-square-foot state-of-the-art complex, made possible through the largest gift ever" to the university.

USC's previous top gift, $120 million, came in 1993 from the late ambassador Walter Annenberg.

The record for U.S. higher education overall was a gift totaling $600 million to Caltech in 2001, with half of the money from Intel Corp. co-founder Gordon Moore and his wife, Betty, and the rest coming from their foundation.

Still, the Lucas donation is another in a series of fund-raising coups for the university administration under President Steven B. Sample. USC in 2003 wrapped up a 9½-year fundraising campaign that collected $2.85 billion in gifts and pledges — the biggest ever for an American university, until UCLA announced in February that it collected $3.05 billion in its 10½-year campaign. Donations and pledges have continued to flow into USC in the last three years, totaling $4.2 billion since Sample arrived at USC in 1991.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-09190...ewed-storylevel

Edited September 20, 2006 by BERIGAN

[RDK]

It seems to me Lucas could do more good with that kind of money than build a nicer film school......

Please don't go there otherwise every time i buy another CD I'll be forced to think of how many meals that money could buy for some impoverished kid in Bangladesh...