KALAMAZOO – Turns out Western Michigan University's mystery of historic proportions is a $100 million anonymous gift to start its medical school.

WMU officials say the money is the largest cash gift ever given to a college or university in Michigan and the 15th largest cash gift ever given to any public university in the nation.

"This is a gift not just to the university but to the community, the region and the state," Dunn said.

Like the Kalamazoo Promise, it "ties economic development to higher education," Dunn said.

Dunn, who first promoted the idea of a WMU medical school soon after he became president in 2007, has said repeatedly the school would not take any public money and divert no funding from the university.

Created in partnership with Borgess and Bronson hospitals, Dunn told the Kalamazoo Gazette a year ago that the medical school would require an endowment of between $175 and $300 million to fund along with tuition and financial support from the two hospitals.

How the university would secure the millions necessary to fund a private medical school has been an open question that has, perhaps, now been largely answered today.

In the lead up to today’s announcement, WMU had launched a campaign called Operation Historic Moment, only saying it was news of historic proportions that would even have national implications.

Some speculated that the “historic” announcement would center on revitalizing the university’s historic East Campus.

Others thought it was related to the medical school and felt their suspicions were bolstered when WMU said last week that the announcement would take place at its College of Health and Human Services.

Though it pales in comparison, this isn’t the first private funding the medical school has secured.

In November 2009 when the WMU Board of Trustees endorsed starting a school to train up doctors, Dunn announced a $1.8 million anonymous donation of seed money to get started, including to provide the founding dean’s salary and $25,000 application fee to the medical-school accreditation organization.

The $100 million announcement comes on Dr. Hal B. Jenson’s first official day in his role of founding dean of the medical school. After a national search, the Massachusetts medical school leader was named dean in January.

It’s Jenson’s task, along with others, to get this school off the ground. Officials have said the first class of students could begin in 2013 or 2014.

Contact Paula M. Davis at pdavis@kalamazoogazette.com or (269) 388-8583.