Chapman University Will Turn Business School Into College With $10 Million Gift

• Chapman University will elevate the George L. Argyros School of Business into a college thanks to a $10 million gift from the Argyros family.
• The expansion into a college will help it serve as an "umbrella" for teaching and research, Chapman officials said in a press release, like the university's new Burra School of Accounting and Finance.
• The donation came as part of an ambitious fundraising effort to raise $500 million.
• Chapman has already raised more than $300 million toward that goal.

The business school at Chapman University in Orange, California, will become a college thanks to a $10 million gift from its namesake's family.

The George L. Argyros School of Business and Economics will be known as the George L. Argyros College of Business and Economics, Chapman officials announced last week.

"This gift will propel Argyros into one of the top business schools in the nation by enabling us to continue offering excellent, personalized education in business and economics that aligns with industry needs," Chapman President Daniele C. Struppa said in a press release.

The expansion of the Argyros school into a college at Chapman will provide an "umbrella" for other schools within Chapman pursuing research and teaching, like the university's new Burra School of Accounting and Finance.

Argyros has one of the top-ranked private master of business administration (MBA) programs in California, according to the school's website, and touts a "unique, immersive and interactive opportunity" in its graduate business, accounting, and real estate programs.

The gift "will have a positive effect on students in perpetuity," Argyros Dean Henrik Cronqvist said in the release.

Chapman's business school was first named after Argyros — an entrepreneur, philanthropist, former U.S. ambassador to Spain, and Chapman alum — in 1999. The donation from Argyros' family comes as Chapman pursues its most ambitious fundraising campaign to date — having already raised more than $300 million of a $500 million goal, according to a previous release.

The university's Burra School of Accounting and Finance launched within Argyros thanks to a donation as part of that campaign earlier this year, according to the previous release. School officials noted that business and financial occupations are projected to grow faster than the average for all occupations over the next decade, underscoring the need for accounting and finance degrees.

The Argyros donation isn't the only major gift to the university in recent months: Board of Trustees Chair Parker S. Kennedy donated $15 million in August for student recruitment, scholarships, and an endowed chair.