Princeton didn’t call Kwanza Jones back until her $20 million donation. Now her name is on a dorm
TheGrio...
The artist and majority owner of the San Diego Padres spoke about how she earned a dormitory in her name at Princeton after initially being ignored by her alma mater.
Years before they became the first Black and Puerto Rican majority owners of the San Diego Padres, Kwanza Jones and her husband, billionaire investor José E. Feliciano, made history with their donation to their alma mater, Princeton University. Though it didn’t happen the way Jones initially thought it would.
In 2020, Jones and Feliciano were honored by their alma mater with two dormitories in their name after donating a historic $20 million to the Ivy League. It was the largest donation the Ivy had received from Black and Latino donors in its history. But, according to Jones, until that donation hit, Princeton wouldn’t give her the time of day.
The artist and investor explained to T.I. on his podcast, “expediTIously with Tip,” that she had long before been interested in how buildings on Princeton’s campus were named in the first place.
“You would see names on buildings like Forbes,” she said. “You would see names on buildings like Rockefeller. You wouldn’t see names on buildings like Kwanza. And you wouldn’t see names on buildings like José.”
She continued, “I reached out to some of the development or advancement offices at Princeton and asked, ‘Interested, what would it take to be able to give and donate to the university if you’re interested in a residential college, or if you’re interested in a dorm, or interested in something like that?’ No one got back to me.”
Jones said that the radio silence continued as she would try every few months to inquire about how to get her name on a building. Eventually, she said she caught the university’s attention when she and Feliciano donated $20 million as a gift toward Princeton’s effort to increase the student body population.
Though she commended the process, saying that Princeton knows how to prioritize consistency in building and cultivating relationships, Jones told T.I. that Princeton had underestimated her and Feliciano, who had built uber-successful careers in finance and investments, with Jones’ career also encompassing music, law, and philanthropy.
“Just because you don’t hear about it does not mean big, powerful moves are not being made,” she said. “Because there is still work that is being done that people may be unaware of, and you still have to keep doing the thing you do. Keep making your moves in the way you do what you do. Maybe people hear about it, maybe people don’t hear about it.”