A Thai businessman and University of North Texas alumnus will donate $22 million to the school to help boost its prominence in business, music and engineering.
Charn Uswachoke, who was a leader in the development of Thailand’s semiconductor industry, made the announcement via video conference from Bangkok to about 200 UNT supporters who gathered in the University Union on Monday night.
“I owe a lot to UNT and to Denton,” Uswachoke said. “Denton is my second home.”
He said he wanted his gift to be used to help make UNT a top-tier research school.
James Scott, dean of the UNT College of Music, joined Uswachoke in Bangkok for the announcement.
Uswachoke’s gift is the largest in UNT history, university officials said, and it is the third multimillion-dollar donation the university has announced within the last month.
On Friday, athletics officials announced a $20 million sponsorship agreement with the technology company Apogee for naming rights to the university’s new football stadium.
Also, the university announced in July an $8 million pledge from Denton businessman Paul Voertman. That donation will be divided among the arts and science, music, and visual arts and design colleges.
UNT has received three other recent gifts that are valued at more than $1 million.
UNT President Lane Rawlins said Monday he met with Uswachoke in Thailand in November and began discussing some areas where he might want to support the university. He expressed interest in music, engineering and business.
Rawlins returned in June with proposals from each of those colleges, expecting Uswachoke would pick and choose from the list of possibilities, he said.
“Charn looked at the list and he said, ‘I think I’d like to do them all,’” Rawlins said.
“He’s a very modest person. He doesn’t want his name on a lot of stuff. He loves this place; he believes in it, and he wants to be a part of it.”
During Monday’s announcement, Rawlins called Uswachoke “one of the most important people in our history.”
Uswachoke received his master’s degree in business administration from UNT in 1973.
In 1995, he donated gifts of $1 million and $1.2 million. Those gifts were earmarked for music, business and international programs.
Uswachoke also made headlines in 1994 when he purchased 500 UNT football season tickets for $10,000 and donated them to various local groups.
UNT at the time was seeking to move up to Division I-A in football and needed to sell an average of 17,000 tickets per home game to qualify.
In addition to becoming a successful businessman, Uswachoke served as a senator in Thailand from 1996 to 2000 and has been an adviser to the prime minister.
From Uswachoke’s current gift, the UNT College of Music will receive $10 million to sponsor faculty positions, touring and recording opportunities for students and for competitive scholarships.
The College of Engineering is set to receive $6.5 million for the creation of the Charn Uswachoke Center for Energy Efficient Materials and to attract a top researcher to lead the center.
The College of Business is set to receive $5.5 million to establish a scholarship fund for study-abroad students and to create a suite for graduate students in the university’s new Business Leadership Building.
“There is a transformative power because of some of these gifts,” Rawlins said. “The things you can do with gifts like this really set you apart. These are things that are almost impossible to do out of state formula funding.”
He said Uswachoke developed a love for jazz while at UNT, where his walks frequently took him past the music practice building.
Rawlins has met with several alumni in recent months as part of the quiet phase of a capital campaign for the university.
The details and specific goals for that campaign are still being worked out, and it is uncertain when the university would begin an active public campaign, Rawlins said.
“I think that UNT is truly right on the cusp of being a different kind of place,” he said. “It’s been a great school for a number of years, but [it will become] a place that is more of a university of choice, a place that folks are probably going to have to struggle to get into. It’s an exciting time.”
Posts
