That's the rub though, isn't it. I'm not sure even Bezos has money that would be needed to pull that off over, say, a 10 year horizon. MIT has almost a $20 billion endowment to give some idea of the sorts of money flows we're talking about here. To say nothing of the fact that they already have the faculty, physical plant, reputation, etc.
He is barely 10% of Jeff Bezoz. Not just a name on a building either. A whole new program.
But I actually agree. Why try to build a university from scratch even starting with an existing "tier 2" (whatever that means) school when you can get your name attached to a significant new initiative at an institution which already has a lot of prestige?
Bezos would be dead long before that happens.
- Desired faculty: We'll triple your salary and hire your spouse too. Oh, and give you unprecedented freedom.
- Desired students: Free tuition and board and a great campus environment.
At the least you could jump-start a pretty darned interesting educational institution at least within a certain focus. But I'm not sure the money is realistic, at least at a scaled undergraduate level.
We’re talking graduates who become heads of governments, CEOs of unicorns, etc.
Now you could become “the Harvard of tech” a bit easier, but would Bezos settle for that alone?
The chances of people not knowing what MIT is or their reputation going down is very low. And that’s a big reason why people want to go there.