The unscheduled phone call turned out to be worth $1 billion.
University of Oregon leaders have long been accustomed to big checks from Phil Knight, a Nike co-founder whose surname is splashed on everything from the library to the law center. When Mr. Knight called Oregon’s president this year, though, he and his wife, Penny, had a greater gift in mind: the largest known contribution to a public flagship university in the United States.
Oregon announced the donation, which will go toward starting an engineering college, on Wednesday, bringing the Knight family’s known total giving to Oregon to more than $2 billion.
But the contribution underscores how even the biggest gifts rarely erase financial strains at places like Oregon, which is weighing millions of dollars in fresh budget cuts as enrollment ebbs. Declining birthrates suggest a darkening outlook for colleges in the coming years as the number of children drops, and the Trump administration is pursuing a vigorous campaign to overhaul — and reduce — federal research funding.
