Barbra Streisand To Fund UCLA Program To 'Move Society Forward'

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Barbra Streisand and UCLA are about to rain all over other universities' parades: The 79-year-old is launching an institute at the school to “collaborate on research that will move society forward.”

On Tuesday, a press release announced that Streisand will be funding The Barbra Streisand Institute at UCLA. A four-pronged approach, the institute will focus on truth in the public sphere, the impact of climate change, the dynamics of intimacy and power between women and men, and the impact of art on the culture. 

"It is my great pleasure to be able to fund an institute at UCLA, one of the world's premier universities. This will be a place where future scholars can discuss, engage and argue about the most important issues of the day; where innovators will speak truth to power, help save our planet, and make glass ceilings for women an anachronism; and in the process give us a chance to have a brighter, more promising future," said the EGOT recipient in the release.

Streisand went on to say she “can't stop thinking about the future and what it holds for our children, our planet and our society” and hopes the institute will “be an exploration into vital issues that affect us all."

"The fact that my father, Emanuel Streisand, was an educator makes this Institute even more meaningful to me,” she added.

Streisand was previously responsible for the Streisand Chair in Cardiology at UCLA in 1984 and later launched the Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Health Program at the school in 2014.

Darnell Hunt, dean of social sciences in the UCLA College, said of the news that “the future Barbra Streisand Institute will bring to bear the full range of UCLA’s social sciences expertise on the most pressing societal issues of the day, guiding policy and informing solutions to benefit all.”