Harvard University has announced that Harvard Law School alums Rita E. and Gustave M. Hauser have given the University $40 million to support excellence and innovation in learning and teaching at Harvard.
The gift will launch an initiative for learning and teaching and serve as a catalyst for transforming students’ educational experiences University-wide.
HLS Dean Martha Minow said: “The Harvard Law School community is enormously proud that two of our most visionary and supportive graduates, Gus and Rita Hauser, have made this transformative gift to Harvard—in a very real sense, a gift to the cause of education around the world. Part of a long history of generosity by the Hausers to the University and to the Law School, this gift will enable Harvard to more truly reflect the sum of its many superb parts, and to lead the way in the search for innovative new models for teaching and learning in a world where more and more is made possible by the rapid advancement of technology and interdisciplinary studies. The Hausers have not only established an enormous legacy, they have lit a spark which may in turn ignite new approaches to education for the benefit of Harvard students and, as importantly, countless people around the globe who will learn from what is learned at Harvard.”
Read the full story in Harvard Gazette.
Gustave Hauser, a cable-television pioneer and former chairman and CEO of Warner Cable Communications, graduated from the law school in 1953. An international lawyer, Rita Hauser, a member of the Class of 1958, is of counsel at the New York City law firm Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, where she was a senior partner for more than 20 years.
The Hausers have been long-time benefactors of the law school. With their support, Hauser Hall was built in 1994 to provide much-needed faculty offices. In 2006, the Hausers endowed the Rita E. Hauser professorship of human rights and humanitarian law, now held by Gabriella Blum. Rita Hauser currently serves on the dean’s advisory board.
Read profile of the Hausers in the most recent issue of Harvard Magazine.