One might expect a charitable donation to a university from ConocoPhillips Chairman and CEO James Mulva to be aimed at something with a business or engineering bent to it — maybe an endowned chair in the Bureau of Economic Geology or a new wing for the business school.
But Mulva and his wife, Miriam, have decided to give a massive $15 million gift to The University of Texas at Austin to build a liberal-arts building.
The key element: It will include a floor for the university’s Reserve Officer Training Corps program.
“I went through ROTC — that’s the only way I could attend UT — so I really want to support ROTC students,” said Mulva, who was a Naval ROTC graduate. “For these young men and women, it’s not about making money. It’s all about service to the country. They’re very dedicated and bright students.”
In addition to space for the ROTC programs, which are part of the College of Liberal Arts, the six-story building will include 30 classrooms, study areas and meeting rooms, along with laboratories and offices for faculty. When it’s finished in 2013, it will house Anthropology, Sociology, Geography, Linguistics, Plan II and Liberal Arts Honors, among other departments and programs.
A place for students in the School of Liberal Arts has been something many students say they’ve been missing at UT. It will be built on the site of Russell A. Steindam Hall, which is being torn down this fall.
UT has been able to reduce the cost of the new building from more than $100 million to about $95.7 million by changing designs and taking advantage of low construction costs. (Now that’s something an oil company CEO would love to see — bringing a project in under budget.)
Mulva earned a bachelor’s of business administration from UT in 1968 and a master’s degree in business administration the following year. He then served four years in the Navy.
In the past, the Mulvas have made gifts to the Red McCombs School of Business and the Robert Strauss Center for International Security and Law at UT andf to St. Norbert College.
Awesome! Glad to see that there is still some focus on quality in higher education. I got my Bachelor of Arts in liberal arts (philosophy), and was able to use what I learned there (depth of thought, persuasion, and writing skills) to go further to obtain a Master of Science degree. My friends back home used to make jokes about how I’d have to get a job in a “thought factory,” but now they see there is great value in a liberal arts education.
This is a very generous gift from a great Longhorn! Thanks!
I am wondering why he gave to a liberal arts degree program flush with cash while eschewing the athletic department in Austin that lives in the red….
I was in UT-Austin graduate school same time as James Mulva. I earned Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering 1968-1970. I attended computer courses in the Red McCombs Business School. I am proud that Mr. Mulva is assisting with building a Liberal-arts Building.
I’m glad that he is donating the money, I just chuckle at the irony. He, a capitalist, is donating $15 million so that the ulta-liberals in the UT College of Liberal Arts have a place to congregate and talk about the evils of capitalism.
despite the best efforts of the brainwashed to make everything political, not everything is. i applaud mulva, thank him for his generosity and wish him well