Despite possible future dips in state funding, UF has received a $21 million donation from a Jacksonville couple for medical education purposes and facilities.
Jerry and Judy Davis, both cancer survivors, have given a record $20 million to UF's College of Medicine to create the Jerry W. and Judith S. Davis Cancer Endowment.
"We have excellent physicians at UF," said Jerry Davis, who was a patient at the UF Shands Cancer Center. "We want to do all we can to support them."
According to Dr. Joseph Simone, director of UF's Shands Cancer Center, the endowment will be used to recruit top doctors and researchers to the university. It will also help in developing programs to learn more about specific cancers, such as lymphoma and breast cancer.
"They're extremely generous people," Simone said of the Davises. "They have strong feelings about cancer and want to help eliminate or control the disease."
The Davises gave an additional $1 million to the construction of the $388-million Shands at UF Cancer Hospital, according to Kim Rose, Shands spokeswoman.
Rose said the project is on budget, and the hospital is still scheduled to open in November 2009.
According to the hospital's Web site, the building will be 500,000 square feet with 192 private inpatient beds and a critical-care center for emergency and trauma services.
According to Paul Robell, vice president for development and alumni affairs, UF officials see the donation as a "transformational" gift that will help the university affirm its role in the world as a top clinical and research center for cancer.
"Support from alumni and friends of UF is always important in terms of UF's reputation, research abilities and ability to help society, but it is even more important in these tough economic times of declining state support," Robell wrote in an e-mail.
Jerry Davis, a UF alumnus, and his wife, Judy, are recurring donors.
They have given $3 million to the College of Journalism and Communications in the past, as well as $5 million toward UF's Shands Cancer Center in 1998.
As survivors, Jerry said cancer research is very important to him and his wife and that giving to the Shands at UF Cancer Hospital is "a good investment for all cancer patients."
UF Foundation spokesman Chris Brazda said UF is doing well for the times in terms of donations.
Brazda said UF has met 57 percent of its goal for the university's fundraising effort, the Florida Tomorrow capital campaign. UF hopes to collect $1.5 billion by the year 2012.
