$200 Million Promised for New College

BOSTON — A foundation has pledged $200 million--the largest donation ever to an American college or university--to start a new four-year college near Boston that will reshape the way engineers are trained.

The gift from the New York-based F.W. Olin Foundation, will launch the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering in Needham, Mass.

The first class of 50 to 100 students would start in 2001 under the current proposal. Enrollment would eventually grow to about 800.

Students will get a broader science education than many engineering schools now offer, and there will be more emphasis on communications, business and marketing, the foundation said.

It will be the first new college in three decades in the Boston area, which already has 55 colleges and universities, one of the highest such concentrations in the country.

The $200-million grant eclipses the previous largest gift of $125 million, donated to Louisiana State University by Claude B. Pennington in 1981.

Franklin W. Olin, who established the foundation in 1938, was trained as an engineer and made his fortune with the Olin Corp., which produced chemicals, sporting goods, munitions and metals.