With $1.8-Billion Gift to Johns Hopkins, Michael Bloomberg Sends a Message on Affordability

Michael Bloomberg, the prominent billionaire and higher-education philanthropist, on Sunday raised the bar for the ultimate alumni donation. In an op-ed for The New York Times, the former New York City mayor and rumored presidential hopeful announced a plan to donate $1.8 billion to the Johns Hopkins University to fund student financial aid.

“I want to be sure that the school that gave me a chance will be able to permanently open that same door of opportunity for others,” Bloomberg wrote. “And so, I am donating an additional $1.8 billion to Hopkins that will be used for financial aid for qualified low- and middle-income students.”

He added that the gift would make the Baltimore university “forever need-blind,” meaning that it will be able to admit students without considering their financial need.

Bloomberg had previously donated a total of $1.5 billion to the university’s financial aid, teaching, and research efforts. The new donation surpasses that and all other donations to higher education in the modern era, based on data collected by The Chronicle. (Bloomberg’s donations also extend beyond his alma mater. In 2015, he gave $100 million to Cornell Tech.)

In the past decade, the nation’s most selective institutions have faced increasing pressure to open their doors to more students from low- and middle-income families. Even selective public universities are trying to expand their financial-aid programs to a wider swath of families based on the idea that more Americans are worrying about the affordability of college.

The gift also comes at a time when politicians on the left are increasingly running on platforms that address the cost of college. At the same time, many of the nation’s most selective colleges have student populations in which students from families in the top one percent greatly outnumber students from the lowest income brackets, according to an analysis in The New York Times.

Bloomberg’s gift could be seen as an attempt to battle that inequity. In a news release, the university said the donation would create a student body wherein one in five students would be eligible to receive Pell Grants.

Ronald J. Daniels, the university’s president, alluded to that transformation in a statement and said, “This gift powerfully affirms Mike’s belief in the promise of this country and the power of accessible higher education. We are truly blessed.”

And starting with the fall class in 2019, the university said, Johns Hopkins will reduce the amount a family would be expected to contribute to their child’s education and will offer financial-aid packages that don’t include loans.

In addition to announcing the gift, Bloomberg used his op-ed to more generally criticize the cost of higher education. He also called for an improvement in the college advising process for high-school students, an increase in financial aid to students from the lower and middle income brackets, and an uptick in alumni giving.

Some on Twitter noted that few institutions have the ability to solicit massive donations from billionaires.

The donation also comes at a time when state appropriations continue to shrink for most public institutions. To that end, Bloomberg said, the federal government should do more to support higher education financially.

“Private donations cannot and should not make up for the lack of government support,” he wrote.

Chris Quintana is a staff reporter. Follow him on Twitter @cquintanadc or email him at chris.quintana@chronicle.com.