Gianforte foundation gifting $50M to MSU
The Montana State University campus in Bozeman. (Wikipedia Creative Commons)
BOZEMAN (AP) — The Gianforte Family Foundation is donating $50 million to Montana State University for a building to house the Gianforte School of Computing, the university announced.
Over the years, the foundation created by now-Gov. Greg Gianforte and his family has provided significant support to the computer science program at MSU, allowing it to increase its enrollment and hire new faculty members, officials said. In 2016, the foundation donated $8 million to establish the Gianforte School of Computing.
"The school's staff and leadership have grown it to the point where a building is the logical next step, and we couldn't be happier to help make that happen," Susan Gianforte, trustee of the Gianforte Family Foundation said in a statement.
John Paxton, director of the School of Computing, said the new building will have state-of-the-art classrooms and computer labs and will help attract more students. It was also consolidate computing faculty that are dispersed across five buildings, he said.
In recognition of the gift, Montana State University will ask the state Board of Regents for permission to name the new building Gianforte Hall.
Greg and Susan Gianforte founded the software company Right Now Technologies. It was sold to Oracle for $1.5 billion in 2011.