Okay, it's great to see you guys at CMU on the heels of such a historic announcement, a monumental $3 billion gift to Carnegie Mellon University from Ken. Ken, how did this deal come together? How long have you been working on this?
Good morning, Sarah. It's a $3 billion investment in Carnegie Mellon. It's an investment in excellence in higher education in America. We've worked on this now for two, two and a half years. I am so thrilled to be supporting the leadership team of Carnegie Mellon. Carnegie Mellon is number one in the nation in computer science, artificial intelligence, cyber security, world-renowned program in robotics, and has an incredibly strong fine arts and drama program that anchors its humanities efforts. This represents what higher education needs to look like in our country.
President Johan, and what about you? How did you approach Ken, or did he approach you? How did this come together? It's obviously major, a billion dollars for your campus in Pittsburgh, and then two billion to build this new Miami University.
You know, it started with a conversation about the future of higher ed, and CMU has always made bold bets at consequential moments. You know, as you know, Carnegie Mellon was founded by Andrew Carnegie to educate sons and daughters of the working class. So, we've been on this journey for 125 years. Ken and I started this conversation about two years ago about what a consequential moment it is for higher ed and for our nation. Technology advances are transforming every sector of our economy, advancing scientific discovery at a scale we've not seen before. And candidly, our national security, our economic prosperity is so dependent on winning the talent race and making progress on so many fronts. So for us, the moment is how do we educate the next generation, and how do we prepare them for this world that's changing, and how do we accelerate discovery to benefit society in so many different areas.
And Ken, I know you've been thinking about this for a long time, as long as I've known you, which is how do we match higher education with the skills and tools that young people need for society. It doesn't feel like — I mean, I think you say it's not just a geographic expansion. There's a new model here. How did you come up with this?
How did you come up with this? Look, I think the president should speak to that. And part of the reasons that I chose to partner with Carnegie Mellon is the willingness to step out of the box, to think in new ways, to be creative, to be innovative, and I think to touch on the educational model that will be used in Miami. This is a great time for you to do so.
Absolutely. So, we thought about this as we were envisioning this new campus, and you're absolutely right. It's going to be totally integrated with the Carnegie Mellon campuses, including the one in Pittsburgh. But the model essentially moves away from thinking about universities in the context of departments, colleges, and majors. Instead, we focus and organize the campus around societal grand challenge areas such as human health, national security, our economic competitiveness, cyber security, energy and climate resiliency, and of course re-industrialization and advanced manufacturing. So we will use these as framing to bring interdisciplinary educators and researchers to focus on learning and on research.
Yeah. I guess, President Johan, what does it say about the current graduates across universities in this country? Are universities preparing them adequately?
Well, there's no question that Carnegie Mellon is preparing our students for the future. And just to give you an indication of it — yeah, but I took the question where I wanted to take it. So, but more seriously, I think what we need to recognize is that the universities in this country have contributed disproportionately to our economic prosperity, our national security for the last 75 years. Times are changing. So, we need to change with it, and we need to meet the urgency of the moment. And with Ken's investment and support and partnership, candidly, CMU is ready to meet the urgency of the moment.
Ken, I know it also feeds into your very bullish view and all the work that you have done to try to make Miami a major hub. What do you think this does for the future of the city?
Look, all great cities in America are anchored by great universities. And to bring one of the greatest universities in the world to Miami will be transformative for Miami, just as Carnegie Mellon is transformative for Pittsburgh. You know, Pittsburgh was the industrial heart of America a century ago. And today, the future of our country is being written in this city. Around this campus, there's a hundred different robotics companies. Many of them started, many of them run by people who are graduates of Carnegie Mellon. These are the companies that will create the re-industrialization of America. This is the future of our country, and that future is being written here in Pittsburgh at CMU.
You know, Ken, when I saw the announcement — nice applause there from the crowd. When I saw the announcement, Ken, I thought, wow, how Harvard really missed out. I mean, you graduated from Harvard and you gave Harvard half a billion dollars. You decided to pause after we saw the anti-Semitism rampant across that campus and some others. And I'm just curious, did you have any discussions with them about this sort of thing?
You know, taking a step back and thinking about how to both elevate higher education — and higher education has been under attack in the last two years in the United States. But we need to elevate higher education in our country. This is the on-ramp to the American dream for the youth of our country. We need to make higher education work. Carnegie Mellon is at the forefront of so many of the fields that will define the future of our country. And of equal importance, there's such a passion to execute with urgency and haste because the times call for it. America is in a competitive battle with countries around the world. We need to up our game. And that commitment to bringing the best out of America's students and out of our teaching universities — I see that here at Carnegie Mellon, and I am so thrilled to support the momentum and success that Carnegie Mellon's enjoying.
Does that mean that Harvard hasn't made enough progress for you?
Harvard's one of America's iconic institutions, but again, number one in computer science, number one in AI, number one in cyber. I mean, these are the topics that you're covering every day with the viewers on CNBC. This is what your audience wants to hear about because this is the future of our country, and CMU is right there at the frontier of what matters to our country for the next century.
May I just also add that CMU started the first degree-granting drama program in 1914, and it's second to none.
