Sanford I. Weill, the chairman emeritus of Citigroup who, with his wife, Joan, had already given or pledged half a billion dollars to Cornell University’s medical school, sent $170-million to the college in December and January, The New York Times reported.

The donations, which Mr. Weill and the university acknowledged today, had been pledged as part of a $250-million estate gift to be paid after Mr. Weill’s death. But with the economy taking a toll on endowments and drying up the fund-raising pipeline, Cornell’s president, David J. Skorton, asked Mr. Weill last year to consider giving some of the money sooner, the Times reported.

A $250-million pledge the Weills made in 2007 was the largest donation from a private donor in the history of the college, which had been named Weill Medical College in their honor. Mr. Weill is chairman of the college’s governing board. —Charles Huckabee