TV Tycoon Donates Millions To HBS

The founder of The Weather Channel donated $32 million to the Harvard Business School (HBS) on Wednesday, putting the school one step closer to its capital campaign goal of raising $500 million by 2005.

Media magnate Frank Batten, who earned an MBA from HBS in 1952, donated the money to be used for the renewal of facilities in the Business School’s residential campus, according to HBS Director of Communications David R. Lampe.

Although the residential campus is sometimes perceived as “decadent,” its preservation plays a “huge” role in the HBS experience, said HBS student Allen L. Narcisse, editor-in-chief of The Harbus, the school’s student newspaper.

“Many of us live on campus and study there, spending the majority of our time there,” he said. “[The donation] will add to the comfort of the campus, and along with it, it’ll add to the appeal for applicants.”

But Narcisse added that he’s amazed at the magnitude of gifts HBS alums give their alma mater.

“Arthur Rock just gave the school $25 million, and from what I understand, the school looks like it will accomplish its goal of getting $500 million from its capital campaign,” Narcisse said.

The donation’s announcement came almost simultaneously with a study yesterday which showed a nationwide decline in donations to universities last year for the first time in 15 years—with University of Southern California bumping Harvard from first place.

HBS Dean Kim B. Clark said the gift was important to the school, which relies heavily on its residential environment to enhance its trademark case study learning method.

“Frank Batten’s extraordinary generosity focuses on one of the most distinctive and important features of Harvard Business School,” Clark said in a Wednesday press release.

Clark described the HBS residential campus as an environment “where [students] immerse themselves in academic and extracurricular activities and where they have constant interaction with their professors, classmates and others on our campus.”

Plans are now in place to name a road on the HBS campus “Batten Way,” and a building will be named in his honor in the future, according to the press release.

Batten’s journalism career began at age 16, when he worked at a daily newspaper owned by his uncle. After serving in World War II, Batten did his undergraduate work at the University of Virginia before attending HBS.

With his foundation in print journalism, Batten entered the cable television business in 1964.

Over the subsequent decades, he acquired more cable operations and publications under his newspaper and television media company, Landmark.

In 1982, Batten launched The Weather Channel, a cable network dedicated to 24-hour weather reports.

Batten sold the businesses for more than a billion dollars in 1994.