Iowa State is in line to receive one of the biggest donations to a university in state history, but university officials are not yet ready to disclose any specifics about the gift.

The amount, origin and benefactor of the donation will not be released until a ceremony on Sept. 9.

ISU President Martin Jischke, during his convocation on Tuesday in the Sun Room of the Memorial Union, alluded to the donation.

“Stay tuned for an event on Sept. 9 at which we will make one of the biggest announcements in Iowa State’s history,” he said. “I’ll give you a hint. It has to do with the largest gift in the history of this university and one of the largest gifts ever to a land-grant university in the nation.”

The largest gift to ISU to date was the anonymous $34 million donation to the College of Agriculture in September of 1996.

Tom Mitchell, president of the ISU Foundation, said large gifts such as this are guaranteed to benefit the university.

“We’re excited about the opportunities that present themselves and how this might further strengthen an institution that is already regarded as one of the very best public institutions in the country,” he said. “Gifts of this magnitude truly have a transformative effect on institutions.”

Although it was reported that the gift will be the largest in state history, Mitchell denied that assertion. “We really don’t know for sure,” he said.

Mitchell said the biggest gift to a college or university in Iowa history was the $50 million donation to Drake University Law School in 1997.

Mitchell did promise that on Sept. 9, anyone associated with ISU would be very impressed. “The announcement will be record breaking,” he said. “And as a student, as a faculty member, as a staff person or as an alum, you’ve got to be pretty excited about this kind of support.”

The large gift didn’t take Mitchell by surprise, though.

“I think it is consistent with what we’ve found to be true over the last few years,” he said. “Alumni and our friends are supporting ISU in record numbers and very generously.”

Mitchell said they were two reasons to wait until Sept. 9 to let everyone else in on the big news.

“One of the reasons we talked about waiting until September is because the first week of school is a pretty hectic week for the faculty and the students,” he said. “We want to wait until everyone is settled in.”

ISU officials also want to wait until they’ve got a handle on exactly how big this gift is.

“We’re still working to refine and accurately assess the size of the gift and how that gift will rank nationally,” he said. “We don’t want to prematurely state anything.”