The Corporation, the University's highest governing body, accepted two anonymous gifts totaling $19 million to the School of Engineering at its February meeting, along with several other large donations to fund the sciences.
Lawrence Larson, dean of engineering, said the University anticipated this degree of generosity when the School of Engineering was created in July 2010. "I think, naturally, alumni and donors are going to be enthusiastic about having a great engineering school at Brown," he said.
"The School of Engineering is at the beginning of its growth phase," he added. "Part of that growth will be through donations."
The enthusiasm surrounding the School of Engineering, as well as the University's recent initiatives in brain sciences, raises questions about whether donors are neglecting the humanities and social sciences in favor of the sciences.
Like engineering, brain sciences has seen a number of large gifts since the Institute for Brain Science was established three years ago. Last month, The Herald reported that the University is looking to raise $50 million over the next five years to support further growth in the field.
"Investment in the (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) fields can lead universities to get distracted from the humanities and the social sciences, but I don't think that's what's happening here," said Kevin McLaughlin P'12, dean of the faculty.
McLaughlin, who helped launch the Humanities Initiative — an effort to strengthen teaching and research in the humanities — in 2010, said the sciences may appear to receive more attention simply due to the high costs associated with certain fields of study.
"In order for neuroscientists and engineers to do the work that they need to do, it's expensive and requires a lot of money," he said. "We don't need to raise huge amounts of money to do things in the humanities."
Michael Steinberg, director of the Cogut Center for the Humanities and professor of history and music, said the humanities' "most important resource" is its faculty.
"I think the humanities initiative has been designated as the third major initiative along with engineering and brain science," he said. "Obviously it will cost less money, but that doesn't make it less important."
The Humanities Initiative, funded through a 2010 $3 million anonymous donation and through grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, will be hiring six new faculty members, the first of whom has already been selected.
In addition to the already existing support for the humanities, McLaughlin urged the University to do more to explain the importance of research in the humanities to those not in academic fields, which will in turn attract more support from potential donors.
"In some fields, like neuroscience, it might be very self-evident what the value of that research is, but there are huge parts of the University where there isn't that sort of self-evidence," he said. "We need to do more to explain why certain kinds of research are important."
Steinberg said he believes Brown pays unique attention to the humanities, citing the Cogut Center and the Humanities Initiative as prime examples.
"I think the climate here is really very healthy," he said.
The Public Health Program is also actively seeking to become a school, a move that could potentially lead to a similar influx of gifts.
While this new school could raise similar concerns about resource diversion, the University as a whole is likely to benefit from the publicity generated from its establishment, according to Terrie Wetle, associate dean of medicine for public health and public policy.
"I think that donations will increase, but I don't believe that charitable giving is a zero-sum game," she said.
Wetle described donor enthusiasm as "contagious," adding that "one big donor will bring in other big donors."
"We see it as an exciting opportunity," she said.
— With additional reporting by Phoebe Draper
