UNC’s journalism school announced the largest single gift in its history on Tuesday. A $25 million donation has led to the rebranding of the school and a reinforcement of the lessons its teaching students.

The gift from newspaper publisher Walter Hussman Jr. and his wife Ben led to a name-change from the UNC School of Media and Journalism to the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media.

Hussman, an alumnus of the journalism school in 1968, says he was driven to make the gift because his publications’ and personal values align with the school’s in a precarious era of journalism.

“It’s time for someone to really stand up for objectivity and lack of bias in news reporting and editing,” says Hussman. “It’s really resonating with people. We thought [this gift] would, but when you see it in actuality, it’s very impressive.”

Hussman is the publisher of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and CEO of his own media company, which owns daily newspapers and cable television stations in Arkansas, Texas and Tennessee. For his papers, his instills core values of impartiality and credibility.

Dean of the school Susan King says Hussman’s commitment is a reinforcement of those values within the journalism school and serves as a signal to the broader journalism community.

“Every student who comes into our school learns the fundamental building block of information in America that’s kept us free: the first amendment rights of free speech in a democracy,” says King. “With Walter Hussman making an investment in us, he underscores the importance of that fundamental building block of every student’s experience here.”

Kings says she is honored Hussman has chosen to invest in UNC students and her school, seeing it as an optimistic gesture toward reverting journalism away from partisanship.

“I think Walter Hussman is making a statement,” she says, “that UNC is a center where information does make us free and is a university where students are learning how to lead the conversation in America that will make us stronger.”

Hussman says he is encouraged by the positive reaction he’s seen from the gift’s announcement. He says others should donate to journalism and publications they feel strongly about, and that there are ways to support fair journalism even without spending money.

“I think the way people can support [these values] is to speak out,” Hussman says. “They can use their social media accounts; they can write letters to their editors and say, ‘this is what we’re in favor of.’”

The $25 million gift to the Hussman School of Journalism and Media is undesignated. King says her initial plan is to use the funding to invest in faculty and opportunities for students. Hussman’s gift comes just less than a year since Don Curtis pledged a $21 million donation to different facets of the university, a part of which was the largest single gift to the journalism school at the time.