Largest donation in university history follows 2017 gift, and previous record mark, of $15M

Lipscomb University President Randy Lowry has announced the largest donation in institution history, a $23 million gift that will partially fund construction of a new business school building.

The donors have asked to remain anonymous, according to a release.

Lowry, who announced the news Tuesday night during the university’s Imagine 2018 The Power of Telling Nashville’s Story featuring veteran journalist and author Tom Brokaw, said the donation represents the lead monetary contribution in the effort to create a new space for the Lipscomb University College of Business. The school, which has long operated from the Swang Business Center in the heart of the campus, is celebrating 100 years of operations this academic year.

The gift will be used to partially fund design (by Nashville-based Tuck-Hinton Architects) and construction of both the future building (pictured) and a parking structure, while assisting students, professors and programs, as well as global learning facilities in Florence, Italy.

Lipscomb has not yet announced a future use of the Swang Business Center once the planned facility opens. Nor has it announced a price tag for future project or when groundbreaking might take place.



The future building will be located within a pocket of the northern segment of the Lipscomb campus framed by Belmont Boulevard on the west, Grandview Drive on the north and Rosemont Avenue on the east.

“This is a significant moment in the history of Lipscomb University,” Lowry said in the release. “We are grateful to the donors for their commitment to this institution. This gift is an investment in our College of Business as a way to continue to elevate the image of the school as a leader in business education in Nashville and in the nation.”

The Lipscomb University College of Business has more than 600 undergraduate and graduate students, 16 undergraduate programs and four graduate programs. It touted a 95 percent overall job placement rate for 2016 and thousands of alumni.

In 2016, the college was named the top undergraduate business program in Tennessee and the No. 2 part-time M.B.A. degree program in Tennessee by Bloomberg Business Week, as well as the No. 1 and No. 2 Christian-affiliated university accounting programs in Tennessee and the nation, respectively, in 2017 by Christian Universities Online.

Earlier this month, 2018 College Factual ranked Lipscomb’s accounting program the number one accounting program in Tennessee for the second consecutive year and one of the top 50 programs in the nation. The LU Department of Accounting also earned a ranking of 12th in the nation and No. 1 in the state for the second consecutive year for Best Accounting Programs for Veterans.

Ray Eldridge serves as dean of the LU College of Business and said the gift will help the entity “build on our strong momentum.”

“It is exciting for our students and faculty to see how many people believe in our mission, and it also attracts attention from others who want to be part of what we’re doing,” he said.

This is the second consecutive year that Lipscomb officials have announced what, at the time, was the largest gift in institutional history.

At the Imagine 2017 event, Lowry announced that the university had received a $15 million gift from George Shinn, former owner of the Charlotte/New Orleans Hornets, to support the LU College of Entertainment and the Arts and to fund a new events center, among other initiatives.





