Dive Brief:

• Steven Ballmer, Microsoft’s former chief executive, has given about $60 million to Harvard University to expand its computer science department.
• The donation will allow Harvard to add 12 professorships—each at a cost of about $5 million to endow—which will increase the number of professors in the department by 50 percent, the Harvard Crimson reported.
• Ballmer, who graduated from Harvard in 1977, says he wants his alma mater on the list of top computer science schools, which he now considers populated by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Carnegie Mellon University and sometimes the University of California at Berkeley.

Dive Insight:

In an interview with the Crimson, Ballmer declined to say how much he had given, but said the Crimson's estimate of $60 million was in the ballpark. Computer science is the fifth-largest concentration for Harvard’s undergraduates, and the department’s “Introduction to Computer Science 1” is the school’s largest class, with 780 students. At a Thursday event, Ballmer urged other donors to chip in to help pay for new buildings needed to help the computer department expand.