A billion dollar donation to a NYC medical school eliminates tuition for all students
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When Dr. Ruth L. Gottesman’s financier husband died in 2022, he surprised his wife by bequeathing her a substantial stock portfolio, to do with whatever she wanted. Two years later and Dr. Gottesman has settled on what to do: she’s just given $1 billion to Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York City, where she has worked in various research, administrative, and teaching capacities since 1968. New state-of-the-art facilities to come? No. Instead of investing in equipment, the college has decided to invest in their pupils. Starting with the fall 2024 semester, tuition is eliminated for all students. As in, free. In perpetuity. In a touching move, the college gathered their student body into an auditorium to deliver the news in person. The reaction was uproarious:
The largest donation ever made to a US medical school: On Monday, students learned the college [Albert Einstein College of Medicine] would soon be tuition-free thanks to a sizable donation of $1 billion from Ruth L. Gottesman, Ed.D., chair of the Einstein Board of Trustees and Montefiore Health System board member. Dr. Gottesman’s donation is the largest made to any medical school in the country, and will ensure that no student at Einstein will have to pay tuition again, the school said via a press release.
Breaking the news to students: “I’m happy to share with you that starting in August this year, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine will be tuition-free,” a rep for the school said in a video of the announcement posted to YouTube. Students leaped from their seats with joy after learning that they would no longer be required to pay for their education while enrolled at the college. Applause was heard in the auditorium and some were seen crying as they embraced one another in the clip. “This is something significantly profound, affluence no longer dictates who can become a doctor,” one user commented on the YouTube video. On the school’s Facebook account, another individual who claimed to have been present shortly after the students received the news wrote, “I wish I could bottle the happiness felt in that room. Truly a day I’ll never forget.”
From the Bronx to beyond: “This donation radically revolutionizes our ability to continue attracting students who are committed to our mission, not just those who can afford it,” Dr. Yaron Tomer, the Marilyn and Stanley Katz Dean at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, said in a statement. He added, “We will be reminded of the legacy this historic gift represents each spring as we send another diverse class of physicians out across the Bronx and around the world to provide compassionate care and transform their communities.” Although the tuition-free education does not go into effect until the start of the fall semester, all current fourth-year students will be reimbursed for tuition already paid for their spring 2024 semester.
About Dr. Ruth: Dr. Gottesman has been working with the college since 1968 when she joined Einstein’s Children’s Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center (CERC). Since then, she has started a first-of-its-kind adult literacy program and achieved other career accolades such as earning her master’s and doctoral degrees from Teachers College, Columbia University. According to the press release, Dr. Gottesman and her late husband, David S. Gottesman, have a long history of charitable giving when it comes to the college. … Dr. Gottesman added that each year, students at Albert Einstein College of Medicine earn their degrees and “leave as superbly trained scientists and compassionate and knowledgeable physicians, with the expertise to find new ways to prevent diseases and provide the finest health care to communities here in the Bronx and all over the world.”
Yes, I absolutely got choked up watching the YouTube video. The immediate and deafening sound that erupts from the audience was humbling. People have a right to an education — something that will enable them to later put back into their communities — without starting adulthood in outrageous debt. Dr. Gottesman has noted that she especially wanted to lift this burden of debt, as well as expand the pool of candidates who can now consider Einstein for medical school. (Though of course, the cost of and access to education that precedes medical school remains a factor.) Obviously Dr. Gottesman has a direct connection to Einstein College, but there is more significance to such a landmark donation going to the Bronx school. The Bronx is both the poorest NYC borough and unhealthiest New York county. Hopefully this monumental donation will change the statistics for the Bronx in particular, and learning institutions at large.
So — Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Mark Zuckerberg, Warren Buffet, Charles Koch, Jim Walton, Michael Bloomberg… Have anything to announce right now?
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