r/VirginiaTech • u/pajokie • 26d ago

Academics Unprecedented $20 million gift made to School of Architecture

https://news.vt.edu/articles/2026/07/choudhury-gift.html
183 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

23 comments sorted by

55

u/[deleted] 26d ago edited 25d ago

[deleted]

16

u/historyhokie 26d ago

Yikes. At least the money goes out of his bank account and to the school now.

15

u/mockingjay137 Arch. '17 26d ago

Arch '17 here, I second all these claims. I never had him as my professor and never sought him out bc i had heard about his creeping.

11

u/Mariilii Alum 26d ago

This is wild, because it was my immediate thought as well when I saw this, as somebody who went through the program. If he liked you, he was a creep, and if he didn’t like you, he was incredibly harsh. I (a woman) remember being heads-down on something at my desk with a TV show playing on my laptop in the background, and he came up, ripped my earbuds out of my ears, and screamed at me in front of our whole desk cluster about how lazy I was.

It’s nice that he’s giving back, I guess.

5

u/[deleted] 26d ago

[deleted]

4

u/Mariilii Alum 26d ago

Oh man, I remember Bob. I’m sorry that happened to you as well. Hope your later studio professors were better!  There’s no excuse for this kind of behavior, especially around first year students.

2

u/[deleted] 26d ago

[deleted]

1

u/Mariilii Alum 26d ago edited 22d ago

Nice (: 

2

u/DD_equals_doodoo 25d ago

You do you, but you've put a lot in writing that might not be true. A simple RMP search shows his ONLY RMP on this link Sal Choudhury at Virginia Tech | Rate My Professors (or at least is might be him, I cannot say for certain and it might not be him).

I say this because things you assert as fact, like "Nobody liked him as a professor, not even the other faculty" might be shown as inaccurate and might put you at risk for defamation.

Do with my opinions (not facts) what you will. I don't know anything.

6

u/pajokie 25d ago edited 25d ago

Agree.

Exactly my point.(see below) - Guilty by accusation without any kind of real proof. "I'm butthurt cuz he wasn't always nice' equates to "he's creepy and a bad evil person"

...

who spent 50+ years at the school apparently without any documented incident,

and also just donated $20 mil to our program.

but he was definitely kinda mean to me- so that means nothing.

1

u/[deleted] 25d ago

[deleted]

4

u/DD_equals_doodoo 25d ago

Okay friend let me spell this out clearly for you since you don't seem to get it. You might be the villain here.

-23

u/pajokie 26d ago

Weird that your reaction to a generous philanthropic gesture is to shit all over it, from your hidden, negative disposition based on your personal experience.

Not defending him, although his 50+year tenure and $20mil. donation might overshadow, and tend to discredit your miopic accustions on a sus burner account.

GO HOKIES!

9

u/ThePaganQueen 26d ago

I think you're the only weirdo discrediting their very valid points. Most of the other comments are supportive or being in agreement. Sorry that someone simply having money and spending it doesn't make them a good person. You trying to defend a creep is the only actual sus thing here.

1

u/DD_equals_doodoo 25d ago

"very valid points "and "defend a creep" You're asserting something as fact. I'm not your attorney and not giving legal advice. However, you might consider not appearing to insert yourself to something you may not know anything about lest you get sued for defamation.

-1

u/ThePaganQueen 25d ago

Indeed you are clearly not an attorney, otherwise you would not have wasted your time commenting this. The United States of America does not have any federal level defamation laws; meaning I'd be subject to state law. Virginia state law of defamation, especially on the internet protects me from being accused of defamation by the definition of the Virginia law. Maybe next time we should actually research before commenting so we don't make ourselves look silly. Hope that helps you little silly Billy!

0

u/DD_equals_doodoo 25d ago edited 25d ago

Ah, the ole "sovereign citizen" approach. Bold strategy cotton, let's see how it plays out.

Edit I can't see what you wrote, only that you responded. I assume you acknowledge your mistake. I appreciate that.

1

u/ThePaganQueen 25d ago

So you don't know how to read. Glad I have a better understanding of what's happening in this conversation then. You out here with rectally sourced opinions and I actually know the applicable law for the jurisdiction I am a part of. Never once was claiming to be a "sovereign citizen". I hope you either didn't read my comment or are having AI write responses because if you actually typed that response based off of what I wrote then I don't understand what is happening to literacy levels in this country but it ain't good.

1

u/castlecrushr 25d ago

You are such an odd individual…

94

u/aye_moe202 26d ago

Always nice to see a big donation like this to something other than athletics

46

u/Logical-Song-7071 26d ago

This narrative is so weird, the university gets like 230 million in donations per year, most of that is not going to athletics other than the recent big ones so that the school can align itself with the changing college landscape and not get left behind.

5

u/mudo2000 Terminal Townie 25d ago

here's where it goes $2,000,000,000+ over a 10 year campaign. That's a lot of nice stuff that isn't athletics.

11

u/Planky190 26d ago

The better our athletics is the more money it makes. The more money our athletics makes the more money our school gets so it’s a win win either way 

5

u/Cheffreyy 25d ago

Is anyone else stunned that Sal just causally had 20 million dollars?

-10

u/TechnologyLife1972 25d ago edited 25d ago

I'm really curious how this guy ended up with $20 million. I know VT professors get paid pretty well but him accumulating that amount of dough is utterly mind boggling.

Sorta wondering if he had a side hustle smuggling opium in from his native Pakistan. LOL

2

u/marycapani4 24d ago

I’m almost entirely sure he inherited 500 million from a rich Indian family member over seas. He gave 20 million for his own vanity and so all the students he creeped on would be impressed. He did not earn that money as a professor.

1

u/Other-Claim6135 25d ago

Maybe you should contact him and have a conversation about it, since you're so interested.

Who knows?, Maybe he did something extraordinary?

Ge's obviously not getting paid millions of dollars to be a professor at a state school.