Businesswoman Mellody Hobson and the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation have made the lead gift to establish a new residential college at Princeton University in Princeton, N.J.
The university says that Hobson College will be the first residential college at Princeton named for a Black woman and will be built on the site of First College, formerly known as Wilson College.
The university plans to begin work on Hobson College in 2023, following the opening of two new colleges now under construction: Perelman College and a second undergraduate residential college. Hobson College will be the third new residential college and is tentatively scheduled to open in fall 2026.
“No one from my family had graduated from college when I arrived at Princeton from Chicago, and yet even as I looked up at buildings named after the likes of Rockefeller and Forbes, I felt at home,” says Hobson, who is co-CEO of Ariel Investments and a member of Princeton’s Class of 1991.
“My hope is that my name will remind future generations of students — especially those who are Black and brown and the ‘firsts’ in their families — that they too belong. Renaming Wilson College is my very personal way of letting them know that our past does not have to be our future.”
In June, Princeton’s Board of Trustees voted to remove Woodrow Wilson’s name from the School of Public and International Affairs and Wilson College. The board determined that Wilson’s racist views and policies make him an inappropriate namesake for a school or a college whose scholars, students and alumni must stand against racism.
[FROM JUNE 2020: Woodrow Wilson's name removed from facilities and programs at Princeton University]
Hobson’s commitment to service includes her role as chair of After School Matters, a Chicago nonprofit providing thousands of inner-city teens with after-school enrichment programs and summer jobs. She and her husband, filmmaker George Lucas, were awarded the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy in 2019.
Hobson’s commitment to service includes her role as chair of After School Matters, a Chicago nonprofit providing thousands of inner-city teens with after-school enrichment programs and summer jobs. She and her husband, filmmaker George Lucas, were awarded the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy in 2019.
