$200 Million Pledged for Starting Four-Year College

BOSTON —  A foundation has pledged $200 million--the largest donation ever to an American college or university--to start a new four-year college near Boston that will reshape the way engineers are trained.

The gift from the New York-based F.W. Olin Foundation, will launch the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering in Needham.

The foundation hopes the endowment will be large enough to make the school tuition-free.

The first class of 50 to 100 students would start in 2001 under the current proposal. Enrollment would eventually grow to about 800.

Students will get a broader science education than many engineering schools now offer, and there will be more emphasis on communications, business and marketing, the foundation said.

“We want to develop a new paradigm for undergraduate engineering education and to be a model for other institutions,” said Lawrence W. Milas, president of the Olin Foundation.

It will be the first new college in three decades in the Boston area, which already has 55 colleges and universities, one of the highest such concentrations in the country.

The $200-million grant eclipses the previous largest gift of $125 million, donated to Louisiana State University by Claude B. Pennington in 1981.

Franklin W. Olin, who established the foundation in 1938, was trained as an engineer and made his fortune with the Olin Corp., which produced chemicals, sporting goods, munitions and metals. Before his death in 1951, he talked about establishing a college.

Olin College will be next to Babson College, whose business programs have a strong reputation. Olin students will be able to take advantage of those programs. The two schools may also share some facilities, at least temporarily, such as a dining hall and athletic fields.

Although Massachusetts already has a wealth of engineering schools, most notably the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, proponents said Olin College would breathe new life into the field.

The National Science Foundation has spent the last six years pushing for reform in engineering education after a series of studies found that engineering graduates are often narrow-minded in their approach. Among its recommendations were better business and communications skills.