School Donation Stands Apart

Published on Wednesday, March 30th, 2011 by Ryan Collins Category: College News Community Colleges

Bakersfield, CA (CollegetoCareers.com) – Despite the recent budget cuts, all is not completely hopeless for higher education institutions, or so it would seem.

While many universities and colleges feel obligated to cut programs and costs, which lead to higher tuition and less financial aid, help is reaching some institutions in the form of private donations from wealthy benefactors.

More recently, Bakersfield College in California received the single largest donation to any community college in the nation by a single individual.

college donation According to The Los Angeles Times’ blog, the history-making $13.7-million gift beat out competition from a $10 million gift by the Eli and Edyth Broad support arts programming at Santa Monica Community College.

In 2008, the Bernard Osher Foundation donated a record-breaking $50 million for financial aid to the community college system in California that helped students pay for things such as their books, supplies, tools and uniforms. That was the largest donation of its kind on that level.

A Bakersfield, Calif. dermatologist, 95-year-old Dr. Norman Levan, was the gracious donator who made the history-making donation. Dr. Levan’s donation is going to be used by the community college for a scholarship endowment that will help Bakersfield College students pay for things such as fees, books and a portion of living expenses. The scholarship endowment is expected to help around 250 of the community college’s students.

Although Dr. Levan, who still sees patients regularly, is not a graduate of Bakersfield College and did not actually go to the community college, he developed a philanthropic relationship with the school. A former president of the community college, John Collins, befriended the generous donor by becoming a patient of the dermatologist.

The dermatologist has donated $19.4 million in total to the school in the past five years. In addition to the recent $13.7-million gift he gave to Bakersfield College this year, Dr. Levan donated $5.7 million to the school in 2006. A widower with no children of his own, the The Los Angeles Times’ blog said that Dr. Levan is known for his philanthropy throughout the higher education community. He has also made generous donations to the University of Southern California and St. John’s College in Santa Fe, N.M., where he studied.

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