$1 Million Gift to Broaden Diversity in Real Estate Profession

The School of Continuing and Professional Studies received a path-breaking $1 million gift from James and Marjorie Kuhn for its Schack Institute of Real Estate, home to NYU’s graduate and continuing professional education programs in real estate, construction management, and related fields. The gift endows The James and Marjorie Kuhn Program to Foster Diversity. This leadership initiative will help fund recruitment, financial aid, mentoring, placement, and other efforts in support of broadening access and ultimately increasing the numbers of future real estate professionals from diverse backgrounds.
The Kuhns are long-standing supporters of the Schack Institute. In fact, the couple first met while Marjorie was doing coursework here and James was teaching as an adjunct. Today, Marjorie is active in philanthropic, civic, and educational causes. James is president of Newmark Knight Frank—one of the world’s largest independent real estate service firms. He is also the chair of the Schack Institute advisory board. James has also served as chairman of the Schack Institute’s Real Estate Roundtable, and his advocacy was instrumental in the creation of the Master of Science in Real Estate.

James and Marjorie Kuhn with
NYU-SCPS Dean Robert Lapiner (right)
(Photo Credit: Steve Friedman)

The Kuhns are convinced that the real estate industry should broaden the participation of women and men of diverse ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic backgrounds. “It’s the right thing to do,” they explain. “And, the profession will benefit by further embracing the nation’s multicultural character, considering the global trends impacting the real estate business.” They are creating the program at the Schack Institute, “to seek out candidates from all backgrounds, both for high caliber academic training and [eventually] for senior industry posts,” says James Kuhn. This initiative aligns with his lifelong efforts in support of inclusiveness. In 1985, for example, when Kuhn was chairman of what was then the Young Men’s Real Estate Association of New York, he successfully advocated its name change to the Young Men’s/Women’s Real Estate Association. “Since then, women have made great strides and today many of them stand at the pinnacle in banking, investment, and development,” he says.

“Since its establishment four decades ago, the Schack Institute has grown into an unmatched academic resource for the education and career development of real estate leaders,” says NYU-SCPS Dean Robert S. Lapiner. “Its growth in capacity and reputation have happened in large measure through the ongoing support of industry champions—their exemplary commitment, invaluable counsel, and dedication to our students—and their generous and imaginative acts of philanthropy. James and Marjorie Kuhn’s visionary gift will help the Schack Institute keep its doors wide open to motivated, high-achieving men and women, and make the industry more inclusive of all the communities that make up our multicultural world.”