USC’s fledgling aerospace institute is finally taking off, thanks to a generous donation from Anita Zucker.
Zucker, CEO of InterTech Group and incidentally the wealthiest person in South Carolina, has given a whopping $5 million to further the development of USC’s McNair Center for Aerospace Innovation and Research. The center, established just one year ago by a donation from Darla Moore, will now see the new funds go toward creating academic programs in the McNair Center as well as building on research and development and fostering industry connections.
A successful aerospace program at USC would undoubtedly benefit USC in the long run by providing more opportunities for students, drawing in talent to our state and perhaps eventually bringing national and international prestige to our university. With Boeing’s increasing role in South Carolina lately and the aerospace industry becoming a driver of and a job creator in our state’s economy, it’s great USC is now able to be a more concrete part of that.
When Darla Moore made the first $5 million donation to create the center in March 2011, she asked the state government to match her donation. The government, of course, did not, with Gov. Nikki Haley calling the budget request “premature.”
So we thank you, Mrs. Zucker, for desiring to invest in our future when our own government does not.
We want USC to be great, not just in our business school, but in other fields, too. Even though the development of the aerospace program is still a decade or so down the line, we have high expectations.