DePaul University receives $21 million for scholarships, homelessness institute

​

CHICAGO — DePaul University alumnus George L. Ruff and his wife, Tanya S. Ruff, have made estate and monetary gifts to the university totaling $21 million to support scholarships and DePaul’s Institute of Global Homelessness. In recognition of the gift, the institute will be renamed the George and Tanya Ruff Institute of Global Homelessness.

“George and Tanya Ruff are extremely generous individuals who are devoted to our university and the Vincentian mission we all hold dear,” said DePaul President A. Gabriel Esteban, Ph.D. “On behalf of DePaul, I am extremely grateful to George and Tanya for their transformational gift. It will benefit our students and the larger community for many decades to come.”

A 1974 graduate of DePaul’s Driehaus College of Business, Mr. Ruff is senior principal of Trinity Hotel Investors LLC and a member of DePaul’s School of Hospitality Leadership Advisory Board and Philanthropy Committee. He helped establish the Real Estate Center in the Richard H. Driehaus College of Business. The Ruffs have also contributed to the College of Business through the George L. Ruff Endowed Scholarship in Hospitality Leadership, the Coleman Entrepreneurship Center Endowment and the George L. Ruff Endowed Chair in Real Estate.

Mrs. Ruff has been an important partner in this work and a dedicated advocate for DePaul. The couple has honored DePaul’s Vincentian mission by contributing to the Holtschneider Chair in Vincentian Studies, representing DePaul overseas, and participating in numerous campus activities in support of students.

Scholarship supports DePaul students
The George L. and Tanya S. Ruff Endowed Scholarship that will be created with this new gift is designed to benefit low-income students, students of color, first-generation college students and current members or veterans of the United States armed services. The Ruffs have made part of the scholarship funds available immediately to support Now We Must: The Campaign for DePaul’s Students, an ambitious fundraising initiative that aims to help students through the hardships of the COVID-19 pandemic. Mr. Ruff serves on the Now We Must campaign committee.

To encourage others to help students, the Ruffs have issued the “Double Your Impact” Ruff Scholarship Challenge, which runs March 1 through Dec. 31, 2021. During this time, the Ruffs will match any gift of $50,000 or more, up to $750,000, to create a new endowed scholarship for low-income students, students of color, first-generation students or active military and veteran students.

Gift supports work to end street homelessness
Homelessness also became a cause the couple took to heart, particularly upon meeting Mark McGreevy, one of the founders of the Institute of Global Homelessness at DePaul. “I became very interested in trying to do something about the homelessness situation I was seeing unfold across the nation and around the world,” Ruff said. “Ending homelessness is something Tanya and I are interested in being a part of and are happy to lend our names to.”

Funds designated to the George and Tanya Ruff Institute of Global Homelessness can be used immediately and in perpetuity to promote efforts to alleviate the suffering of those experiencing housing insecurity, with the goal of ending street homelessness through research, global cooperation and direct action.

McGreevy is group chief executive of Depaul International, the London-based international nonprofit that coordinates with the Ruff Institute of Global Homelessness and other affiliates in several countries. “The Ruffs’ most recent commitment to the cause of ending global homelessness is characteristic of their extraordinary generosity and devotion to the Vincentian mission of DePaul University. They were there in the early days of the Institute, and their involvement will continue to inspire our movement going forward,” McGreevy said.

### 

Media contact:
Kristin Claes Mathews
kristin.mathews@depaul.edu
312-241-9856 (cell)