Alum Donates $1M to International Affairs Center

Author: Nicha Rakpanichmanee

The Middlebury College Center for International Affairs (CFIA) recently received a $1 million endowment from the Felix and Elizabeth Rohatyn Foundation, a delayed yet successful result of efforts made during the Bicentennial Campaign, which ended in June 2001.

The endowment will be paid in full within three years, but the College will receive earnings from the endowment immediately, according to Acting President Ronald Liebowitz. With a spending rate of 5 to 6 percent, the CFIA will net $50,000 to $60,000 for its programming budget, Liebowitz explained.

The endowment will be used to sustain ongoing interdisciplinary programs and to support new initiatives of the CFIA, continued Liebowitz. An amalgamation of revenue — such as endowed funds, gifts and the comprehensive fee — currently funds the CFIA's symposia and colloquia, regular lectures and residency programs and visits from scholars, diplomats, business executives and political leaders from the United States and abroad. This large endowment, Liebowitz said, "frees up dollars to be used elsewhere."

President John McCardell and CFIA Director and Associate Professor of Political Science Allison Stanger spearheaded the appeal to Felix Rohatyn '49 in the last few years, said Special Assistant to the President for Development Kevin McAteer. McAteer highlighted the long-term relationship between the College and Rohatyn, who once served on the Board of Trustees.

Rohatyn, a New York native, managed investment bank Lazard Frères and Company in New York City soon after graduation and became a partner in 1961. Rohatyn gained fame when, as chairman of the Municipal Assistance Corporation (MAC) of New York City, he handled negotiations that guided the city to the end of its 1970s financial crisis. After 18 years at MAC, Rohatyn served as the U.S. ambassador to France from 1997 to 2001. At Middlebury, he was a member of the French Club, along with the Men's Assembly, Alpha Sigma Phi, the Mountain Club and the basketball and tennis teams.

According to Executive Director of the Rohatyn Foundation Vivien Stiles Duffy, the Foundation supports educational organizations, mostly in the field of secondary education, as well as the "crown jewels" of New York City, such as the New York Public Library, Carnegie Hall and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

"Our gift to Middlebury takes our involvement in education to a much higher and broader level," Duffy noted.

Liebowitz observed that the $1 million endowment would double in 10 years at an approximate annual growth rate of 7 percent.

He said, "This will allow the endowment, eventually when it grows, to solely fund the [CFIA] program."

The CFIA will be renamed the Rohatyn Center for International Affairs, and the dedication ceremony is tentatively scheduled for October 2002.