The University of Chicago has announced gifts totaling $105 million from board members to launch a $200 million campaign in support of undergraduate financial aid.

The $105 million commitment — the largest in support of financial aid in the university's history — will support the Odyssey Scholarship Program, which helps ensure need-blind, loan-free education for students regardless of their economic circumstances. The new effort will serve as a challenge to raise a total of $200 million to establish the Robert J. Zimmer Odyssey Scholarship Fund, named in honor of the university president and his commitment during his fifteen-year tenure to expanding undergraduate financial aid and educational access. Zimmer will transition to the role of university chancellor in September.

Launched in 2007 with a $100 million challenge gift from an anonymous alumnus, the Odyssey program received a $50 million commitment in 2016 from writer and alumnus Harriet Heyman (AM '72) and her husband, investor Sir Michael Moritz. To date, the program has supported more than fifty-three hundred students from diverse backgrounds — many of whom are the first in their families to attend college — by providing financial aid without academic year work requirements as well as opportunities for mentorship, study abroad, research, and paid internships. Since the launch of the Odyssey Career Program in 2015, nearly eighteen hundred students have earned funded internships. About 20 percent of undergraduates are Odyssey Scholars, and the incoming Class of 2025 will be the most diverse in the college's history, with a record number of first-generation, Black/African-American, and Hispanic/Latinx students. The new initiative is intended to help sustain the Odyssey program in perpetuity.

"The Odyssey Scholarship Program has transformed the lives of thousands of students since its launch in 2007," said board chair Joseph Neubauer (MBA'65), who spearheaded the trustees' $105 million effort to honor Zimmer. "Providing access and support and enabling all students to achieve their exceptional potential has always been central to Bob's ambitions for the University of Chicago. Nothing could better honor his tenure as president than to reduce economic barriers for students of great intellectual promise to attend one of the world's top universities. I applaud my fellow trustees for their leadership in this important endeavor."

(Photo credit: Robert Kozloff)