ISyE receives $20 million commitment

Georgia Tech’s School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE) has received a commitment of $20 million from alumnus H. Milton Stewart and his wife Carolyn. The commitment will give the college unrestricted use of the money.

“[The commitment from the Stewarts] means a huge amount for us. The opportunities presented by a commitment…this large are substantial,” said Chelsea White III, the H. Milton and Carolyn J. Stewart School Chair in ISyE. “I will be working with our faculty, staff and administration as we go forward to see how this support can best be used.”

The ISyE now has to decide what to do with the money received from the Stewart family.

“We are going to have an off-site [meeting] in September to talk about a variety of different things and we are going to discuss what we are going to do with [the commitment] and why,” White said.

“Hopefully we will come out with not only a strategic plan, but also a budget that aligns with our mission,” White said. “All of this will be affected by the financial resources that will come available from the Stewart commitment.”

The school is looking to apply the commitment to several different facets of development within the school.

“From the research point of view we are in the process of making adjustments to our…foci,” White said. “[Our focus] really revolves around optimization, but we have many applied foci as well. We are also looking at globalization, health care, transportation and hopefully a growing interest in energy. We may consider other areas for development also.”

“[Endowments] are tremendously helpful when it comes to recruiting students and retaining good faculty,” White said.

According to White, the ISyE currently has a faculty of 67 and operates at a budget of approximately $8.9 million.

“It is certainly very substantial for a school of Industrial Engineering in the U.S.,” White said.

The Stewarts have not only committed money to ISyE but are also giving an amount of money specifically to the chair of the school use at his discretion.

“The Stewarts have also contributed to providing an endowment for the school chair of ISyE,” White said. “There is a $2.5 million endowment that provides the school chair with [access to] resources. This helps provide a little extra money for fellowships...[to help] make us a little more competitive in terms of getting the best doctoral students.”

ISyE is at the top of the national rankings for Industrial Engineering, and the commitment from the Stewart family will allow the school to expand and progress further according to White.

Stewart has a long history of philanthropy at Georgia Tech. He established the H. Milton Stewart Endowment Fund for ISyE Programs in 1995 and the H. Milton and Carolyn J. Stewart School Chair in ISyE in 1999. He has supported scholarships for women students coming to Georgia Tech from Habersham High School.

In addition to a gift of $2.5 million that has already been made, the Stewarts’ commitment consists of two charitable remainder annuity trusts totaling $7.5 million that have recently been established and a third charitable remainder annuity trust of $10 million that will be established in the near future. The Stewarts will receive income from the trusts until December 2015, when the trusts assets will be transferred to the endowment, whose estimated value will be at least $20 million.