Recent Gifts Advance Key Educational Priorities

Support from William J. Levy, W’57, L’64, The Robert K. Johnson Foundation, and The Neubauer Family Foundation expands opportunities for undergraduates and professional master’s students.

Spring/Summer 2025
Ben Statue

Penn Arts & Sciences recently received three transformative gifts that will advance key priorities including undergraduate financial aid and innovative academic options in the College of Arts & Sciences and the College of Liberal and Professional Studies (LPS).

Through an estate gift of over $42 million, William J. Levy, W’57, L’64, created a fund that will support more than 40 civic-minded students annually. This brings Levy’s total support of undergraduate students in the College to $50 million. 

The Robert K. Johnson Foundation additionally contributed $8 million to name and endow The Robert K. Johnson Integrated Studies Program, the first-year curriculum for Benjamin Franklin Scholars students pursuing degrees in the College. This residential academic program invites highly motivated students to examine complex themes through 
the integration of multiple academic disciplines and methodologies.

And The Neubauer Family Foundation contributed $2.55 million to provide tuition support for members of the Philadelphia Police Department to pursue a degree through the new Master of Applied Criminology and Police Leadership program. This LPS program, a first-of-its-kind graduate degree designed by faculty from the Department of Criminology, will offer focused education on crime theories, analytic methods, and policy analysis to guide police leaders, as well as police policy and practice.

“We are profoundly grateful for the generosity and forward thinking of these donors,” says Jeffrey Kallberg, Interim Dean and William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Music History. “Their gifts will impact students for years to come.”