She’s Led the U. of South Florida for 19 Years. Now She’s Giving It $20 Million.

Judy L. Genshaft likes to repeat a motto that she attributes to the Tampa Bay philanthropist Frank L. Morsani: First you learn, then you earn, then you return.

This week she did a whole lot of returning.

The University of South Florida announced on Wednesday that Genshaft, the system’s longtime and soon-to-retire president, and her husband, Steven I. Greenbaum, would donate $20 million toward a new honors college in her name.

The pledge is one of the largest among college presidents who have donated to their own institutions, according to a Chronicle database, and may be the biggest by a chief executive while still in office. Daniel L. Ritchie, who stepped down as chancellor of the University of Denver in 2005, donated $27 million in property to the institution in 2013.

The South Florida gift will contribute toward a $47-million, five-story building to be called the Judy Genshaft Honors College, with study areas, labs, classrooms, offices, and event spaces.

The gift followed an estimated $40-million pledge on Sunday by Robert F. Smith, the billionaire investor, to pay off the student loans of Morehouse College’s 2019 graduates. The donations highlight a yearslong rise in colleges’ pursuit of private giving. Public colleges, in particular, have turned to high-profile fund-raising campaigns, as public spending has continued to decline since the 2008 recession (despite Americans’ mistaken belief that such spending is increasing or flat).

South Florida, for example, last year surpassed its goal to raise $1 billion. With such campaigns have come debates over how the funds should be spent.

South Florida joins many institutions in using philanthropic dollars to support honors colleges in hopes of attracting high-achieving students. The family of James L. Barksdale has spent about $30 million since 1997 on the University of Mississippi’s honors college, and Craig and Barbara Barrett funded Arizona State University’s honors college with $10 million in 2000. As such colleges have proliferated, experts have questioned whether using that money on high achievers best furthers a state university’s mission.

Genshaft said her gift reflects her longtime academic focus on gifted and talented students, and will reach across campuses and socioeconomic levels. Establishing a formal honors college was one of the first things she did after taking office, in 2000, she said in a recent interview with The Chronicle. “It’s a personal calling,” she said. “Honors and gifted and talented students really cross all disciplines.”

In the last five years, thanks in part to deferred bonuses and a retention stipend, Genshaft became one of the highest-paid college presidents in the country, according to a Chronicle database. In the 2016-17 academic year she made $1.2 million, including base pay of $493,500. Her average total pay from 2009 to 2017 was $689,300.

Genshaft and Greenbaum’s gift is part of an estimated $30 million they have donated to the university over all, including a study-abroad scholarship and a graduate-student fellowship, according to a spokeswoman.

Genshaft announced last year that she would step down as president on July 1. She told The Chronicle in an interview last year that she planned to leave once the university reached a high point. “We’re in a new era,” she said. “We’ve got new peers now.”

Follow Steven Johnson on Twitter at @stetyjohn, or email him at steve.johnson@chronicle.com.