Iovine and Dre Make $70m Donation to USC for New School Devoted to Music Biz Studies
Dudes, you got something against
UCLA?
Dr. Dre and
Jimmy Iovine are donating a mindboggling $70 million to
USC for a new academy that they say will give students the tools they need to break into the music biz, the
L.A. Times reports. The donation will be announced by the partners today at
UMG headquarters in Santa Monica, and will bear the moniker the
USC Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation. Yes, that’s a mouthful, but it’s also a ton of Benjamins.
"The vision and generosity of Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young will profoundly influence the way all of us perceive and experience artistic media," USC President
C.L. Max Nikias said in a statement. "Our goal is to ensure that the academy is the most collaborative educational program in the world."
An unspecified portion of the $70-million donation will go toward construction of facilities that will house the academy. Students, who can earn an undergraduate degree from the academy, will use existing facilities while new ones are being built.
The academy will open with an inaugural class of 25 students in fall 2014. The four-year program will feature four core curriculum areas: arts and entrepreneurship; technology, design and marketability; concept and business platform; and creating a prototype. It aims to foster entrepreneurship that brings students' entertainment, technology and business skills into play. Instruction will involve engineering, computer science, fine arts, graphic design, business and leadership training.
"Academy students will have the freedom to move easily from classroom to lab, from studio to workshop individually or in groups, and blow past any academic or structural barriers to spontaneous creativity,"
Erica Muhl, dean of the
Roski School of Fine Arts, said in a statement. Muhl will serve as the first Director of the new academy.