Pace receives gift from Dyson Foundation

Westchester County Business Journal, Feb 12, 2007 by Occhipinti, Christina

In honor of its 50th, anniversary, the Dyson Foundation, a private, family directed grant-making foundation in Millbrook, has given Pace University a $7.5 million gift, making it the third largest in the school's 100-year history.

The multimillion-dollar endowment will carry on the DysonPace relationship, said Robert R. Dyson, chairman and chief executive officer of Dyson-Kissner-Moran and president of the Dutchess County-based Dyson Foundation. His father, Charles H. Dyson, graduated from Pace in 1930. The school's Dyson College, of Arts and Sciences and Dyson Hall on the Pleasantville campus are named in his honor.

"The significance of the gift is that it continues the Dyson family connection with Pace that started 80 years ago with my father. The hope is that they do the usual Pace finish of taking a small gift and making it worth so much more to all the students," Dyson said. "That's the greatest thing about this school. They have always done and leveraged everything that they've received to greater heights, and that's the thing we hope will continue."

In addition to Charles H. Dyson, who passed away in 1997, and the Dyson-Kissner-Moran Corp., a privately owned international holding company founded in 1954 by Charles H. Dyson, the Dyson Foundation's recent gift is just one of many gifts totaling $26 million Pace has received.

Of the $7.5 million given, $5 million will be put toward the renovation of the Dyson school labs, $2 million will be used for scholarships in psychology, communications and media, performance arts, fine arts and environmental studies and $500,000 will go toward the creation of a Dyson Student Opportunities Fund, which will fund special activities for students.

The generosity of the Dyson family and the Dyson Foundation in the form of $7.5 million is "a transforming gift for the university," said David A. Caputo, president of Pace University, which will be used to boost the School of Arts and Sciences.

"Number one, it really helps us in terms of what we're trying to do with the sciences at Pace University, it helps us in terms of undergraduate scholarships and various areas and it really reinforces the longstanding ties we've had with the Dyson family and the Dyson Foundation," Caputo said. "This gift helps attract the students that have been so important to Pace over the years and that is first-generation college students who have to have the opportunity to attend, and this gift will be very significant in helping us do that."

The Dyson Foundation's gift comes after Pace, which has campuses in Briarcliff MANOR, Pleasantville and Manhattan, experienced a steep decline in freshman enrollment following a hike in tuition costs this past fall.

"The commitment of the Dyson Foundation to Pace ... will make an enormous impact on this university, and especially so on our students," said Caputo, who has recently come under fire for his six-figure salary amid the school's financial difficulties. "The amazing and interesting importance of this gift is it will continue to be a major factor in the lives of our students for the next 80 years and beyond because it really truly is an investment in the future."

The Dyson Foundation's latest gift to Pace "could not come at a better time," said Nira Herrmann, dean of the Dyson College of Arts and Sciences.

"We face a growing demand for upgraded labs. Pace's core curriculum requires all students to take one science class with a laboratory component," Herrmann said in a statement. "But in addition, in the last three years we've seen a 38 percent increase in science majors, mainly due to increases in students majoring in forensic science, and in biology and health science."