Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott has wired a multimillion-dollar gift to another historically black campus: Howard University.

The Washington, D.C., university said it received $80 million in unrestricted funds, giving officials wide latitude over how to spend the money.

Wayne A.I. Frederick, Howard’s interim president, said he plans to use the donation - one of the largest single contributions in the school’s 158-year history - to train more medical professionals, upgrade facilities for the growing university and to stave off the effects of the government’s more than month-long shutdown.

Howard, chartered by an act of Congress, is among a handful of universities that receive an annual federal appropriation. But the roughly $55 million allotment, normally issued in October, is

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