The University of Oregon’s governing board voted Monday to buy the vacant 13-acre Northeast Portland campus that was once home to Concordia University.

The University of Oregon plans to use the Portland property to house its new Ballmer Institute for Children’s Behavioral Health.

The University of Oregon's Board of Trustees voted 14-0 Monday to approve purchasing the old Concordia University campus in Northeast Portland for $60.5 million.

The widespread toll that fear, social isolation and tragedies suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic became clear last fall as children returned to school.

A $425 million gift to the University of Oregon will fund a new institute for children’s behavioral health, the university announced Tuesday.

Steve Ballmer created the Ballmer Institute for Children's Behavioral Health with the donation.

The Ballmer Institute for Children’s Behavioral Health will offer a new, and unique, Bachelor’s-level professional degree when students begin taking courses in the fall of 2023.

Megabillionaires Connie and Steve Ballmer pledged more than $425 million to the University of Oregon to create an institute where the university’s researchers and experts in children’s behavioral and mental health will partner with Oregon’s public school systems, families, nonprofits, and state agencies to address the soaring mental health issues children and youths in the state are facing after two years of the pandemic, the university announced Tuesday.

The institute, which will be based in Portland at the former Concordia University campus, was made possible by a $425M gift from Connie and Steve Ballmer.

The University of Oregon intends to purchase the former Concordia University campus in Northeast Portland to house an ambitious new children’s behavioral health institute funded by a $425 million gift from Oregon alum Connie Ballmer and her husband, former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

The University of Oregon announced today that it had received a historic $425 million gift from philanthropists Connie and Steve Ballmer, co-founders of the Ballmer Group.

The University of Oregon on Tuesday launched the Ballmer Institute for Children’s Behavioral Health on Tuesday, with a gift of more than $425 million from Connie and Steve Ballmer, an early Microsoft employee who served as CEO from 2000 to 2014.