Just over a year after its inception, the Program in Commerce, Organizations, and Entrepreneurship is already more than halfway to its fundraising goal, largely due to a $15 million gift from the C.V. Starr Foundation. Twelve million dollars will be used to endow three new professorships and the remaining $3 million will go toward a programmatic fund.
A multidisciplinary concentration that draws on the departments of sociology and economics and the Division of Engineering, the COE program, which first began accepting concentrators in September 2005, will replace the business economics and public and private sector organizations concentrations. The three departments connected with the program will each receive one of the new endowed professorships.
The $1.4 billion Campaign for Academic Enrichment includes a $30 million target to endow the COE program - including endowed professorships and programmatic support. The Starr Foundation gift, accepted by the Brown Corporation at its October meeting, is the only multi-million dollar donation the program has received. Because of this development, COE Administrative Director Maria Carkovic said the program is "past the halfway mark" in fundraising.
"This (gift) jumpstarts the COE program significantly," said Neil Steinberg '75, vice president of development and campaign director. He added that the gift represented a "cornerstone for COE."
Created in 1955 by Cornelius Vander Starr, who founded the American International Group of insurance and financial services companies, the C.V. Starr Foundation now has $3.5 billion in assets and gave away nearly $160 million in 2005. Brown has previously received gifts from the Starr Foundation for the C.V. Starr Auditorium in MacMillan Hall, fellowships and, most recently, $15 million for financial aid.
Steinberg said donor interest in the program has been strong but that it particularly appealed to the "business-oriented" Starr Foundation thanks in part to Brown's strong connection with the family of Maurice Greenberg, former chief executive officer of AIG and the foundation's chairman. Greenberg's son, Jeff, is a trustee of the University and a member of the class of 1973.
Joan Katz, executive director of the Starr Foundation, said the COE program's focus on multidisciplinary business education is in line with the foundation's longstanding concern that American universities be competitive in business and engineering new technology.
The economics, engineering and sociology departments will soon begin searches to fill the new positions, Carkovic said. A search is already underway in the engineering department for an academic with experience in "the innovation and entrepreneurship side" to fill the newly created Barrett Hazeltine University Professorship, which is being funded by previous donations to the COE program.
The programmatic fund, meanwhile, will support Undergraduate Teaching and Research Assistantship grants, teaching assistant positions and possibly mentoring opportunities and internships for COE concentrators.
The first of these programs, the India Internship, began last summer and was organized by Brown alums in that country. Though the 12 students who participated were not all COE concentrators, Carkovic said only program concentrators will be eligible for the internship this year.
By facilitating mentoring and real-world work experience, Carkovic said the COE program will strengthen alums' ties to the University as well as provide useful guidance for current and future Brown students.
"There needs to be a bridge between the classroom and the working world," she said.
Carkovic said she is not sure whether the Starr Foundation gift - which will be paid in monthly installments over a five-year period - will provide for all these opportunities. No mentorship opportunities or visiting fellows are planned for this academic year. For now, she said enhancing the undergraduate curricular experience is a top priority.
"Having experienced, good, renowned academicians that will teach the COE disciplines is the main priority and the second priority is to accompany the classroom experience with the co-curricular programs," she said.
Eventually, Carkovic said the COE program will bring alums who have succeeded in business to campus as visiting fellows to teach and stay in residence at the University. No timeframe has been set for the creation of these co-curricular opportunities or additional internships, Carkovic said.
So far, student interest in the new concentration has been strong, and enrollment in the relevant courses has increased, Carkovic said. She estimates that there are 75 COE concentrators in the class of 2008. Seniors concentrating in business economics or PPSO had the option to switch to COE or complete the concentrations they had started.
The program has brought Professor of Economics Ivo Welch, Carkovic and her husband, Professor of Economics Ross Levine, to the University. It has also led to the creation of 12 new courses - two new foundation-level engineering courses, one sociology course and a series of upper-level economics courses - all of which are open to the general student body.
When the College Curriculum Council first approved the concentration in spring 2005, some council members expressed concern that the large number of required courses, which range from 14 to 17 depending on a student's track, would be a deterrent to potential concentrators.
Carkovic said she does not think the requirements have discouraged students from declaring a COE concentration. She added that many alums have responded positively to the concentration, often expressing regret that the program did not exist when they were at Brown.
