A $46 million donation to Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, will be used to fund scholarships for students receiving Pell Grants.
The gift will be bequeathed by alumnus John Metz and his husband, Ali Khan, upon their deaths. It is the largest individual donation in the university’s history.
The funds will be key in making higher education more affordable and attainable for economically disadvantaged students, Miami President Gregory Crawford said in a press release.
“Miami University is grateful to John and Ali for their extraordinary generosity,” Crawford said. “This gift is especially transformative because it is designated to students with the greatest need. This means that more students will have access to a Miami education. This gift will impact the lives of students and their families for generations to come.”
Currently, the university enrolls approximately 2,000 students who receive Pell Grants —nearly 11 percent of all students on campus.
The donation was announced shortly after the university launched a fundraising campaign to raise $1 billion. Funding from the campaign will be used for student scholarships and to expand or create programs in the clinical health sciences, business and entrepreneurship, and digital innovation and technology fields.
“These are areas where the university has already made significant investments, and where, through philanthropic support, Miami can be best in class,” Crawford said in the release. “Underlying all of this is our number one priority — scholarships. We must ensure that deserving students from all backgrounds have access to a Miami education for generations to come.”
