Photo courtesy of quickmeme.com.
David Einhorn ’91 , founder and president of the hedge fund Greenlight Capital, donated $50 million to Cornell to partially fund the school’s new public engagement program called “Cornell Engaged.”
Cornell Engaged was announced on Monday as a $150-million program that aims to give all Cornell undergrads real working experiences in their respective fields by the year 2025. Einhorn cited his semester spent working at the Securities & Exchange Commission as part of the Cornell in Washington program as a major factor in his career path. Einhorn’s family charitable trust will fund one-third of the program, and Cornell hopes his name recognition will attract other donors to pay the remaining costs.
Einhorn, a 45-year old billionaire who garnered intentional acclaim for his astute investments made before the Financial Crisis of 2007-08, was quoted by Fortune saying, “It’s an exciting project because of the skills we think it will develop for the Cornell undergraduates of which we expect 100% to participate within ten years.When you go out beyond the classroom and into the community and find problems and have to deal with people in the real world, you develop skills for empathy, for bridging cultural differences that we think will lead to more prosocial skills and make Cornell graduates even better leaders.”
A Sun article has more details.
This recent event particularly caught my notice because of the apparent disconnect between students and faculty lauding this program and the donation with the overwhelming anti-capitalist sentiment on campus. Einhorn’s billions come from trading financial securities, which to many leftists on campus is perhaps one of the greatest evils known to man.
Yet, these anti-capitalists fell silent today. Funny how it works.
Perhaps the anti-capitalist forces on campus would like to see Cornell redistribute the $50 million to other colleges having smaller endowments. And how many Gates Millenium Scholars at Cornell are donating a portion of their grant to less-fortunate classmates? Are these not the altruistic things to do?