Graduate alumnus Frank Levinson and his wife Wynette will announce today a $20 million donation to the College.
The Levinsons' donation is one of the five largest ever given to the University and one of the largest ever donated by a former graduate student.
The funds will be distributed over the next several years.
The donation will establish an interdisciplinary center for religion and democracy and provide funding for the Astronomy Department.
Half of the $20 million will be set aside for developing the center, which will allow students to study the role of religion and democracy in society.
The center will support research and outreach programs as well as professorships and other faculty positions.
It will be housed in the Sociology Department and directed by Sociology Department Chairman James Hunter.
"The Levinsons are visionary patrons of the University and for a project that aspires to engage some of the most important issues of the day," Hunter said. "I personally am thrilled by their leadership and support in this endeavor."
Mrs. Levinson said she hopes the information discovered at the research facility will change the way students interact with each other.
The remainder of the donation will be devoted to funding education and research programs in the Astronomy Department. It also will provide for hiring new faculty and purchasing equipment.
"It has really been very uplifting for us to get a gift of this magnitude. It illustrates that [the Levinsons] have directed their gift in a very thoughtful way," Astronomy Department Chairman Robert Rood said.
The department's principal goal from a research standpoint is to strengthen its observational capabilities, Rood said.
"We plan to build a program in instrumentation and, in particular, to build up optical and infrared instrumentation," he said. "We also want to become involved in a large telescope project. This would give us access to some of the largest telescopes in the world."
Rood said the search for faculty members in the area of teaching and education already has begun.
The department also has met to discuss the steps it will take toward instrumentation.
He said he expects the remaining projects to begin in the next few months.
The Levinsons said their contribution was motivated by their belief that democracy can broaden people's perspectives on major issues.
They also said the Astronomy Department has the potential to be the best in the country.
"One of the troubles of today's society is that people tend to [dwell] on one issue," Mr. Levinson said. "But democracy is really about people trying to broaden their perspectives on a wide range of issues."
"The center represents the potential to acknowledge the shift in consciousness in this country," Mrs. Levinson said. "We have a really deep respect for what the Department of Astronomy is doing. The department exhibits a lot of potential and is of such a high caliber."
Development Communications Director Bill Sublette said it is unusual for graduate alumni to give a gift of this magnitude.
"It's wonderful that someone who came here as a graduate student has the same amount of loyalty as undergraduate students," Sublette said.
University administrators said they are hopeful the donation will help the Astronomy Department improve its ranking.
"They wanted us to work toward being in the top 10, and I think that this donation will help us do that," Rood said.
Administrators said they hope the programs funded by the gift will improve the College's overall ranking.
"This is a fantastic commitment to the college which empowers us to do things we would otherwise never be able to do," said College Dean Melvyn Leffler. "We will create the best program in America dealing with religion and democracy, and the other part of the gift for astronomy will enormously enhance the department and enable us to be on a trajectory to compete with the best departments in the country"
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