Enrollment worries and budget constraints are keeping many colleges and universities from adding programs today. In fact, some are shrinking their academic offerings. A $30 million alumnus gift is making expansion possible for one top-rated engineering school, though.
Alex Molinaroli, class of 1983, is responsible for the generous donation to the University of South Carolina’s College of Engineering. As a result, the college is being renamed the Molinaroli College of Engineering and Computing. Molinaroli is the former CEO of Johnson Controls where he began working after earning his degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of South Carolina.
Molinaroli hopes his gift to the school will have a ripple effect throughout the state, bringing more high-paying jobs to engineering students and filling the demand for local employers: “We have a great technical set of resources, great work environment, but we don’t necessarily have the high-tech skills. So I think that a different set of jobs can come in that creates opportunity for a student so they don’t have to leave the state in order to get a job,” Molinaroli said.
A degree in industrial engineering is one of the new programs slated for funding. The school also plans to use the donation to recruit new faculty and staff to grow the engineering department.
USC Dean Hossein Haj-Hariri said, “It is a tremendous level of generosity that will take a while for me to process personally. But the fact is that it’s not just the gift that is incredible, but the partnership and the shared vision that Alex has for this college and what we can do for our state going forward.”
U.S. News & World Report has ranked the university’s undergraduate engineering programs among some of the best in the country. At CVO, we’ve featured the school in two of our recent college rankings: 10 Schools with the Best Merit Scholarships and 30 Colleges With Connections to America’s Top Industries.
Source: Post and Courier— Ahead of Record-Breaking Enrollment, USC Engineering College Gets New Name, $30M donation
Related: 10 Best Online Bachelor’s in Engineering Programs