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Yale School Of Drama Goes Tuition Free Following A $150 Million Gift From The David Geffen Foundation

David Geffen
David Geffen (Shutterstock)
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NEW HAVEN, CT (CelebrityAccess) — The Yale School of Drama announced that it will go tuition-free beginning with the 2021-22 academic year following the receipt of a gift of $150 million dollars from the David Geffen Foundation.

The gift, which was intended to allow full-time students in degree and certificate programs will receive 100% tuition remission, beginning with the 2021-22 academic year, allowing aspiring artists to begin their careers with less academic debt.

As a result of the gift the name of the school has been changed to the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale. The school’s website has already been updated to reflect the new name and the campus will see updated signage and communications over the next year, the school said.

In a joint statement, Elizabeth Parker Ware Dean James Bundy, Associate Deans Florie Seery and Chantal Rodriguez, and Assistant Dean Kelvin Dinkins, Jr. said:

“As our art form returns to in-person performance and the development of anti-racist practice in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and our society’s reckoning with racial injustice, it is inspiring to feel Mr. Geffen’s and the University’s enthusiasm, not only for students, but also for the immediacy that defines theater-making. This gift is also a giant step toward a more accessible and inclusive performing arts community. We look forward to celebrating this momentous turning point in the School’s history in person with colleagues on campus during our Orientation Week at the end of August.

“In the meantime, a loving gift of this magnitude leaves us thrice-blessed: with a jubilant observance of the power of live theater; with a humbling reminder of our responsibility for the quality of training we offer to present and future students; and with the thrilling promise of those students’ talents for making art that promotes wonder, empathy, and understanding in the world, for generations to come.”

Geffen co-created Asylum Records in 1971 with Elliot Roberts, Geffen Records in 1980, DGC Records in 1990, and the film and production studio DreamWorks SKG in 1994.

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