The Stony Brook University Council, an advisory board to the university, has approved naming Stony Brook University’s medical school in honor of Renaissance Technologies, the hedge fund founded by former mathematics chair Jim Simons.

The resolution was approved by the 10-person board by a vote of seven to one (with two seats still vacant) at the end of the Oct. 2 meeting followed an earlier electronic vote.

Karen Wishnia, the only student representative in the group, the treasurer of the Graduate Student Organization and a doctoral student in the department of Art History and Criticism, was the sole vote against the naming.

The council includes nine members appointed by the governor of New York State and a student member named in alternating years from the graduate and undergraduate student bodies.

The SUNY chancellor and trustees must approve the naming of the medical school for the East Setauket-based company where, the school says, more than 100 employees have made donations to the university.

The Stony Brook University School of Medicine would be renamed the Renaissance School of Medicine, honoring not that time in history, but a hedge fund founded by Simons.

Jim and Marilyn Simons are the school’s biggest donors, but the resolution would not name the school directly for them.

It would instead name the school for the fund that Simons launched before turning over leadership to co-CEO Robert Mercer, a big funder of Donald Trump and Breitbart News, and Peter Brown.

Mercer has said he is stepping down from his role at the helm of the fund in 2018, following criticism of him that he says is not justified.

His decision also came after the launch of a campaign to get universities and retirement funds to divest their assets in the fund, due to his use of its profits to fund Trump’s run and various other candidates.

While Stony Brook cites more than 100 employees as donating to the school, the fund’s founder has been the school’s biggest donor.

Jim and Marilyn Simons through their foundation in 2011 donated what the school calls an “historical $150 million to Stony Brook University,” prompting an additional $50 million in gifts from others for what the school calls “a total Simons effect of $200 million.”

Stony Brook University already named the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics to honor Jim and Marilyn Simons, but the medical school would instead be named for the company he now chairs.

Kevin Law, chairman of the Stony Brook University Council and president of the Long Island Association, said the hospital and medical school’s accomplishments are mobilizing donors.

“This is leading to so many people wanting to donate a lot of significant funds to Stony Brook,” Law said of the hospital’s and medical school’s successes.

Dexter Bailey Jr., executive director of the Stony Brook Foundation Dexter, told the council that Renaissance’s involvement with the school started in 1982 with a $750 gift.

Today, he said, Renaissance employees collectively donated more than $508 million to benefit Stony Brook University. Bailey said the school and Jim and Marilyn Simons at that time of their $150 million donation sought to involve others at Renaissance.

“One of the things Jim and Marilyn were talking about was they were hoping their colleagues and friends at Renaissance would see what they see in Stony Brook,” Bailey told the council.

He said “we consulted with the leadership of Renaissance,” leading to $387 million in additional gifts from Renaissance employees. Bailey said the school had sought and been “able to have them adopt Stony Brook as one of their non-profit priorities.”

“These individuals tend to be very private,” Bailey said. “One of the important parts of the strategy was to find something we could do that they could reflect on and feel a lot of pride in.”

Stony Brook settled on naming the medical school for Renaissance as part of its strategy to promote more donations at a time when state funding to Stony Brook itself has dwindled.

“This was a motivating factor,” Bailey said of the naming rights. “They are not only giving their charitable giving. They serve on boards. They teach classes. They open up their homes so we can meet new donors. They really helped us raise additional funds.”

Stony Brook University, Bailey said, is negotiating for nearly $100 million more in donations as it taps Renaissance employees as an economic engine for an educational institution.

He said 111 of Renaissance’s 300 employees have donated, totaling 2,662 transactions over six and a half years, in a drive at the firm that could yield another $78 million over the following 12 months.

“It’s been an absolutely tremendous experience,” he said, adding that naming the school of medicine” not only could reflect donations” already made, but “sets the stage for future giving.”

Bailey said “this is really unprecedented” regarding naming university programs and schools not for individuals, but for firms, although Microsoft donations have prompted that elsewhere.

“We’re really excited about this,” he said before the nine to one vote in favor. “It would be an honor and a privilege if the council would support this resolution.

The decision to name the school for the hedge fund, rather than its founder, however, is likely to prompt dissent, along with the vote in opposition from the student member of the council.

While Jim and Marilyn Simons have long been the face of philanthropy at Stony Brook, Renaissance has not previously, at least publicly, been described as directly part of that.

“Stony Brook is an outstanding public university, offering a wonderful education at reasonable cost to thousands of young people,” Jim Simons was quoted as saying regarding the decision to donate $150 million. “The generosity of those who joined us in this effort will enhance the university in many dimensions, making that education more valuable still.”

Newsday in 2014 reported that Jim and Marilyn Simons pledged $25 million to The Simons Center for Geometry and Physics, to total $105 million they provided to that center.

Renaissance is among the nation’s best performing hedge funds, generating huge profits for its investors as well as management such as Simons and other executives.

But Renaissance itself lately has been in the spotlight for other reasons, led by co-CEOs Peter Brown and Robert Mercer since Simons stepped down as CEO to become chairman.

Mercer is among the nation’s biggest political contributors, donating millions to the campaign to elect Donald Trump president as well as investing heavily in Breitbart News.

He has supported Steve Bannon philosophically and financially as well as campaigns to elect far right candidates under the Republican ticket. Donald Trump attended a victory party at Bannon’s mansion, the Owl’s Nest, following the election.

Mercer recently said he would step down as co-CEO of Renaissance, although he said he he would provide technical support to the company, but not serve as co-CEO or on its board.

Simons, meanwhile, is among the nation’s bigger donors to the Democratic party as well as a massive donor to the university. Law told Newsday that the naming seeks to honor financial support, including but not limited to founder Jim Simons.

“We don’t make decisions based on partisan points of view,” he told Newsday. “This naming is about more than any one individual or employee at Renaissance. It’s about the more than 100 employees and their families at Renaissance who have been very generous to the university over the years.”

While Renaissance stands out for stellar success, the fund still faces a nearly $7 billion tax case with the Internal Revenue Service related to its methods of treating trades for tax purposes in the past.