Gifts to ‘diversify the medical field’ will give millions to schools like Howard University College of Medicine
Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire former New York City mayor, announced on Tuesday that his charitable organization is donating $600m million to four historically Black medical schools.
The landmark gifts, made by his Bloomberg Philanthropies group, will give $175m each to Howard University College of Medicine in Washington DC, Meharry Medical College in Tennessee and Morehouse School of Medicine in Georgia. Another $75m is headed to Charles R Drew University of Medicine & Science in California, according to a news release from Bloomberg.
Class sizes and anticipated growth determined the funding levels, the organization said, adding that an extra $5m will be given to support a new medical school in New Orleans being created by Xavier University of Louisiana – another historically Black institution – and Ochsner Health, a prominent hospital network in that region.
Bloomberg Philanthropies said that the funding – which will more than double three of the four medical schools’ endowments – will “fuel the historically Black medical schools’ long-established commitments to diversifying the medical field and training the next generation of doctors”. It will also strengthen the school’s financial stabilities and institutional capacity “to respond to the rising costs of tuition, innovative research, and operations”, according to the organization.
