Alumnus gives $25 million to College
By John McArdle | October 18, 2000When Thomas Jefferson founded the University, he planned to create an Academical Village, bringing the talent and experience of professors from around the world to Central Grounds. This afternoon, 1987 College graduate and Internet entrepreneur Halsey Minor will give a landmark $25 million to the College to help bring these Jeffersonian ideals to a global community, in the information age. Minor's gift, the largest single donation ever received by the College, is designed to integrate digital technology with the humanities and social sciences program to create a "Digital Academical Village." "I asked myself 'If Jefferson were to build the University today, what would he build?' He wanted to create the most modern University in the world," Minor said. Today the University can only fulfill Jefferson's ideal by incorporating digital technology into the curriculum, he said. The idea for the technology-focused gift spawned from the E-Summit, a gathering of Internet business leaders held on Grounds last November, he said. "I've witnessed how a lot of venture- and corporate-based money has been used to make businesses more efficient as a result of the Internet," Minor said.
