The Culinary Sustainability and Hospitality program received a commitment of $5 million, the largest donation from a single individual in the history of Kennesaw State University.
The University System of Georgia’s Board of Regents approved the naming of the program, now the Michael A. Leven Culinary Sustainability and Hospitality program after the donor himself.
“I’ve been around the business in and out almost 54 and a half years now,” Leven said. “So I’ve watched it grow into a mass of businesses.”
Leven is currently the CEO and chairman of the Georgia Aquarium. Before this position, he worked for six years at Las Vegas Sands Corporation, a casino and resort operating company that owns properties in the United States and Asia. Leven has founded as well as served as the president or CEO of several corporations that manage major hotel franchises.
“There are two basic components of a successful institution, not in order of importance, but the two basic components are the leadership and the student body, and I think in both cases that’s very relevant to my choice of KSU, and I’m anxious to be of any help I can be, without being a pain.”
This donation is his first such effort to help, and there were numerous factors that made the decision clear for him.
“I thought there were a couple of major reasons why I chose KSU,” Leven said. “First of all, I thought it was an emerging program which was dealing with really some modern and creative concepts.”
He believes that older entities are more resistant to change, and he liked the idea of being able to have a real influence on this young hospitality program.
“The location was the right one for me because it’s … just outside of Atlanta.”
He also favored the demographics of KSU and the diversity of the student base.
“A lot of the kids work while they’re in school,” Leven said. “The tuition is low enough so that middle-class can go and afford the education, and so I thought that was also a very big point for me. And so in general just the profile of the school and its age in terms of its hospitality program were very important.”
Leven expressed his hopes to stay involved with KSU in as many ways as possible, including helping with internships, creating bridges with universities across the globe, and recruiting faculty in the hospitality business.
“What I’d like to do is to be available as an unpaid consultant to the school, where I could come up and talk to faculty members, talk to the program head, and give some input in terms of structure.”
Christian Hardigree, director of the Culinary Sustainability and Hospitality program, is very excited for this commitment.
“I am honored and humbled that Mr. Leven selected our program for his support,” Hardigree said in an email. “This support allows us to enhance opportunities for student success that ultimately creates in future leaders for our industry.”
According to Hardigree, there are already plans for the donation funds.
“His gift will support an endowed faculty chair, scholarships for culinary sustainability and hospitality students, and program development.”
President Daniel S. Papp explained how Leven came to be associated with KSU.
“We have been talking with Mr. Leven for the past couple of years regarding the program in Culinary Sustainability and Hospitality, which is itself only a couple of years old,” Papp said.
“We have emphasized how practically oriented the program is, how it will be a flexible program that will change as the culinary and hospitality fields change, and how it will graduate alumni ready to go to work and succeed in the culinary and hospitality fields.”
Like Hardigree, Papp was also excited for the opportunities presented by this donation.
“We are extremely grateful to Mr. Leven for his wonderful generosity,” he said. “This will quickly help catapult the Leven School of Culinary Sustainability and Hospitality to a national level of prominence.”
