McCausland gives $10 million for fellowships, ‘innovation fund’
The College of Arts and Sciences received its largest-ever donation Thursday, a $10 million gift aimed at keeping rising-star professors on campus and allowing faculty to pursue new ideas.
Peter McCausland, a 1971 history graduate and founder of Airgas Inc., a major gas distributor, and his wife, Bonnie, made the donation, which Dean Mary Anne Fitzpatrick called “very unique.” Most high-profile donations go to professional programs, not the liberal arts, she said.
The gift will fund three initiatives, Fitzpatrick said — a fellowship program for young faculty, a visiting scholars program and a fund to promote new ideas and programs.
“The big picture is (that) we can respond to the creative ideas that faculty have, to the new and exciting things they’d like to do in the classroom, things they’d like to bring to students,” Fitzpatrick said.
The first four members of the McCausland Faculty Fellows Program were also named Thursday: Hunter Gardner, in classics; Blaine Griffen, in marine science and biology; Catherine Keyser, in English; and Joseph November, in history.
The donation wasn’t the McCauslands’ first to USC. Since 2004, they had given $3.75 million, to establish a brain imaging center and to retain top professors.
The program is planned to grow to 20 members and targets young faculty; only professors who have earned a doctorate in the last 10 years are eligible.
Each will receive a $10,000 stipend, which will keep USC competitive nationally, Fitzpatrick said.
That’s important, she said, because otherwise, they might be targeted by other universities.
Keyser, who studies modern American literature, said the designation was a “wonderful affirmation” of her work that she thinks will provide her the inspiration and resources to experiment with how she teaches.
The college will also bring in two visiting professors each year; departments will apply to host one, Fitzpatrick said. And departments will compete for grants worth $10,000 to $50,000 from a new “innovation fund.”
Peter McCausland said he valued the ability to see the big picture and deal with multiple disciplines he gained from studying history. While growing Airgas to be the largest industrial and medical gas distributor in the U.S., he said those skills were useful.
He had to reconcile chemistry and communications with business and human resources, he said, and he needed to step back from day-to-day work to see where the company was headed.
“I think in life, it’s important to know your stuff but it’s also important to understand context,” Peter McCausland said. “I just think a broad-based liberal arts education where you do study history, English and psychology and the basic sciences is wonderful, and I hope we’re not losing that. … If you get too specialized, you lose the context of your own specialty.”
Fitzpatrick said she wants to keep top professors on campus “because students need to see what it means to be excellent.” And Peter McCausland said he hopes the donation will bring a focus back on the liberal arts at USC.
“The specialization has gotten so extreme,” he said. “It’s just to remind people that this is the foundation of the university. This is the heart and soul of it.”