John (B.A. ‘95) and Laura Arnold recently donated $25 million to the newfound College of Connected Computing, per a university press release on March 6. The aim of the gift is to provide support to faculty and to drive foundational initiatives within the college.
The donation will be used to establish an endowed chair for the college’s inaugural dean, as well as three chairs to support faculty leaders. Additionally, the gift will provide funding to strengthen computing education and research through a “computing for all” approach, as described by the university.
The Arnolds are longtime supporters of the university, having contributed over $34.5 million through various philanthropic ventures, including the Arnold Family Scholarship, the Arnold Scholars Program and the Laura and John Arnold Fund. The Arnold Family Scholarship, alongside the Arnold Scholars Program, provides need-based scholarships to students at the College of Arts and Science with the goal of nurturing recipients’ leadership skills and commitment to service. The Laura and John Arnold Fund support the Public Policy Studies and Quantitative Analytics in Social Sciences program in the College of Arts and Science. John Arnold also served on the Board of Trust from 2010-14 and was reelected to the board in 2023.
In the press release, Chancellor Daniel Diermeier expressed his enthusiasm for the Arnolds’ donation.
“Vanderbilt’s College of Connected Computing will be an empowering resource for students and faculty in all disciplines — enabling them to take their work in new directions and crucially advance some of society’s most influential and promising fields,” Diermeier said. “John and Laura Arnold’s generous commitment holds tremendous impact for our community.”
The College of Connected Computing, whose launch was announced in March 2024, will offer programs in the fields of computing, artificial intelligence and data science. The university has emphasized the college’s commitment to innovative research and breakthrough discoveries in the face of an ever-evolving technological landscape. The college will admit its first cohort of students in fall 2026.
Vice Provost for Special Initiatives Duane Watson described how the Arnolds’ donation will be used to support the new College of Connected Computing.
“These funds will help support recruiting the very best faculty out there. It will fund endowed chairs that will help support research and recruitment, and it will allow the dean to be flexible in funding new projects, classes and centers,” Watson said in a message to The Hustler. “Amazing faculty are a critical part of what makes Vanderbilt a leader in education and research, and these funds will enable the new dean to hire faculty doing state of the art work.”
Watson also commented on how this donation aligns with Vanderbilt’s “Dare to Grow” campaign.
“The gift is an example of the philanthropic support that will advance university priorities and new growth initiatives, such as the College of Connected Computing, and exemplifies the bold vision and historic momentum of Vanderbilt’s dare to grow era,” Watson said.
In the press release, John Arnold expressed his commitment to supporting Vanderbilt’s “Dare to Grow” campaign.
“We are honored to support Vanderbilt’s visionary efforts to foster a deep understanding of what it means to learn and prosper in an interconnected, interdisciplinary world,” Arnold said. “This investment reinforces our commitment to the core principles that underlie the Dare to Grow campaign.”
Gwendolyn Geotz, a sophomore, said she hopes the donation will be used to bring more career recruiting opportunities to students through the College of Connected Computing.
“I think it would be great to have a lot of collaboration between the other existing schools,” Goetz said. “I think it’s really important that everyone graduating in this day and age can at least code a little in Python or keep up a website — so I think [the college] will be really useful to every student.”
Joshua Jung, also a sophomore, shared his reaction to hearing about the gift.
“As technology is developing and AI is empowered, I feel like we’re trying to compete with [artificial intelligence],” Jung said. “I feel like the $25 million gift will definitely be huge in order to provide different opportunities for either lab or education — and just separating from the engineering building right now, giving more leeway to software and more AI stuff, I think it’s going to be very beneficial.”
