Carnegie Mellon Receives $67 Million Gift from David Tepper to Transform Pittsburgh Campus
Gift from CMU alumnus creates new Tepper Quad, strengthening integration among programs
Carnegie Mellon University received a $67 million gift from the charitable foundation of CMU alumnus and renowned investor David A. Tepper (TPR 1982) to create a major new academic hub to further strengthen collaboration among CMU’s schools and colleges.
Tepper’s gift enabled CMU to establish a new university gateway and interactive hub through the creation of the David A. Tepper Quadrangle and the construction of a 295,000 square-foot building that will be a new home for CMU’s Tepper School of Business. It is both the largest gift from a CMU graduate and for a building project at CMU in the university’s history. The Tepper Quad opened in fall 2018.
The founder of Appaloosa Management, Tepper extended his support of CMU at a time when bridging the gulf between technology, business and the sciences is critical to solving some of the world’s most challenging issues.
“CMU has a long history of providing the world with innovative thinkers and the establishment of a true hub for entrepreneurship will help create the next generation of global leaders.” David A. Tepper
The Tepper Quadrangle is the first expansion of the university’s north campus and is located on a 4.5-acre site. Its design facilitates high levels of cross-campus collaboration and brings together interdisciplinary initiatives, including entrepreneurship and technology-enhanced learning. It also enables the university to leverage other highly ranked campus programs, such as business, engineering, computer science, energy, design and life sciences, to accelerate the transfer of new technologies into the marketplace, to create new integrated degree programs and to expand new research and education opportunities.
The Tepper Quadrangle represents an initial investment of $201 million by the university, which includes the new business school. The establishing gift by Tepper launched this expansion along Forbes Avenue in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood and includes the new Coulter Welcome Center. The facility also includes many quality of life enhancements for students and faculty, including larger and better classrooms, meeting and collaboration spaces, and a fitness center and café.
“There are natural intersections between the business school and the research and teaching taking place at each of the seven schools and colleges at Carnegie Mellon,” said Robert M. Dammon, dean of the Tepper School of Business. “The new home for the business school enables us to enhance our undergraduate and graduate programs in business and economics, expands the possibilities for innovative research and interdisciplinary degrees, and allows us to offer a flexible technological framework that anticipates the needs of next-generation learning. The combined involvement of faculty, students, alumni and staff from across the CMU campus is a rare, powerful resource.”
In 2004, Tepper donated $55 million to Carnegie Mellon University to rename the Graduate School of Industrial Administration. He currently serves on the university’s Board of Trustees and as a member of the Business Board of Advisors for the Tepper School of Business.