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University of Michigan Honors Millionaire Jeff T. Blau For Contributions to the Ross School of Business
University of Michigan Honors Millionaire Jeff T. Blau For Contributions to the Ross School of Business
by Molly Shapiro
The success of University of Michigan alumni and the love they feel toward the school leads so many individuals to donate large amounts of money to improve the school which led them to where they are. For example, Stephen M. Ross is the largest donor in UM history who has donated a total of $378M to fund the Ross School of Business as well as the Ross athletic complexes (Jesse).
Every morning when I exit my dorm, I walk by another building made possible by monetary gifts to the university. The beautiful architecture and uniqueness of Blau Hall- an academic building that is an extension of Ross built in 2016- stands out to me. This building is named after a successful Michigan alumnus named Jeff T. Blau who devoted countless dollars and hours to the Ross School of Business to improve its facilities. Blau’s name was placed on the building due to his grand achievements in real estate and because of his monetary donation.
Jeff T. Blau Hall. Photo courtesy UM Student Life.
Interestingly, Blau means blue in German. Photo source: MDen
While this building is relatively new for the University of Michigan, it offers an added welcoming space for students to study. This building took the place of the former Computer and Executive Education Building, which was completely demolished to make room for the new construction (Slagter). This expansion cost $135 million, a large portion of which was donated by Jeff T. Blau, leading to this part of the building being named after him (Ryan).
Blau Hall contains six floors, nine new classrooms, a career services center and space for staff functions like operations, finance and human resources. It features two atriums, a courtyard, and classrooms connected to the original building through a skywalk. Also, there are many study rooms available for students to book to focus on individual and collaborative studies (Slagter).
Jeff T. Blau was born in 1968, a year in which the name Jeffery was extremely popular and ranked sixth in the country (“Top Names of the 1960s”). Interestingly his last name Blau is German for the word blue, according to ancestry.com. (Geh' blau!)
The legacy that Blau had on Michigan as a successful alumni goes way beyond his name. After graduating from University of Michigan in 1990 with a BBA, Blau continued his education at the University of Pennsylvania. He then continued on to become the CEO of Related Companies, which is one of the largest private real estate development firms in the country. He has been responsible for directing and overseeing new developments worth over $60 billion in virtually every sector of the real estate industry (“Jeff T. Blau”).
Because of his huge donation of $10 million to its renovation, Blau was given the honor of having the building named after him (“The University of Michigan's Ross School of Business Celebrates Grand Opening of New Academic Building”). Also, a year later, the auditorium within the building was named Blau Auditorium in honor of Jeff Blau’s monetary contributions (“Meeting”).
Blau is far from the only generous alumnus who's given lots of money to the university and been rewarded with the honor of a building name, but as I researched this article, I thought more about the reasons buildings on campus are named after people. I was astounded to find out that 24 percent of the buildings at the University of Michigan are named after donors, while only ten percent were named after professors (Dougall). We, as a community, should reconsider the reasons the university chooses alumni to honor with a building and make stronger efforts to recognize people for their commitment rather than their money. Though Mr. Blau’s financial contributions are greatly appreciated by the Michigan community, we need to keep in mind the sacrifices other members of the community made to help the University of Michigan be the prestigious institute it is today. I hope to see a future where the university praises people's academic and social contributions regardless of socioeconomic status.
Works Cited
Dougall, Jared. “Daily Research Finds Only One Building Named after Person of Color, 12 after Women.” The Michigan Daily, 15 July 2021, https://www.michigandaily.com/news/administration/daily-research-finds-only-one-building-named-after-person-color-12-after/.
“Jeff T. Blau.” Michigan Ross, https://michiganross.umich.edu/about/profile/jeff-t-blau.
Jesse, David. “Stephen Ross Donates Another $50 Million to University of Michigan.” Detroit Free Press, Detroit Free Press, 20 Sept. 2017, https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2017/09/20/stephen-ross-university-michigan-donation/684184001/.
“Meetings.” The Seal of the University of Michigan, https://regents.umich.edu/meetings/.
Slagter , Martin. “$135 Million U-M Ross Business School Renovations Give College Room to Grow.” Mlive, 12 Sept. 2016, https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/2016/09/ross_ business_school_renovation.html.
“Top Names of the 1960s." U.S. Social Security Administration, https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynamesdecades/names1960s.html.
Ryan, Caralyn. “University Celebrates Opening of Jeff T. Blau Hall in Ross Business School.” The Michigan Daily, 20 Apr. 2021, https://www.michigandaily.com/news/business/new-building -ross/.
“The University of Michigan's Ross School of Business Celebrates Grand Opening of New Academic Building.” Michigan Ross, https://michiganross.umich.edu/news/university-michigan-s-ross-school-business-celebrates-grand-opening-new-academic-building.
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