Yale Drops Drama School Tuition After David Geffen’s $ 150 Million Donation

Yale announced on Wednesday that he was lower tuition fees for drama school students starting this August following a donation of $ 150 million from the David Geffen Foundation.

Yale has stated that all current and future full-time students of the drama school’s diploma and certificate programs are eligible for tuition waivers starting in the 2021- school year. 2022.

The university said the giveaway would remove financial barriers to the school’s historic program, which includes Oscar winners Meryl Streep, Frances McDormand and Lupita Nyong’o among its graduates.

“Yale already offers some of the best professional training available to actors, writers, directors, designers and theater directors from a variety of backgrounds. Removing the tuition barrier will allow a greater diversity of talented people to develop and develop. their skills in front, on and behind the stages of Yale “, Geffen mentionned in a statement on the Yale website.

Geffen’s donation is “the largest ever recorded in the history of American theater,” according to Yale. In recognition of the donation, the university renamed the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale.

The school offers training in acting, design, directing, dramaturgy and drama criticism, drama writing, stage management, technical design and production, and theater management.

It accommodates around 200 students in 10 diploma and certificate programs.

Geffen is a billionaire entertainment mogul, founder of Asylum Records, Geffen Records and Geffen Pictures and one of the co-founders of DreamWorks Animation SKG. Forbes estimates that Geffen’s net worth is $ 10.2 billion.

In 2002, Geffen donated $ 200 million to UCLA Medical School, which was also renamed in his honor.

Geffen taught a course called “The Music Industry and Arts Management” at Yale during the 1978-1979 academic year, the university said in a statement.

Yale School of Music canceled tuition fees for its students in 2005 after receiving a donation of $ 100 million.