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September 08, 1999 - Image 64

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The Michigan Daily, 1999-09-08

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4F - New Student Edition - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, September 8, 1999

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0

Rare gift
gets giver a
rarer honor
By Michael Grass
Daily Staff Reporter
University President Lee Bollinger announced
in June that businessman and philanthropist A.
Alfred Taubman will donate $30 million to the
University's College of Architecture and Urban
Planning, the largest financial gift of its kind ever
given to any school of architecture.
Later during the University Board of Regents'
monthly meeting, the eight-member board unani-
mously approved an administrative recommenda-
tion to rename the College of Architecture and
Urban Planning in Taubman's honor.
Bollinger said it is rare for the University to
bestow such an honor.
"It is a very serious matter to name something at
the University, whether it be a professorship;
room, building or school," he said. "Naming a
school is the most significant of all of those."
Regent Andrea Fischer Newman (R-Ann Arbor)
noted that it has been a "long time" since the
University has honored a donor by naming a
school or college after one.
The regents' approval of the renaming will make
the A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture
and Urban Planning the second University school
named in honor of an individual.
The regents established the Horace H. Rackham
School of Graduate Studies in 1935. The trustees
of the Horace H. Rackham and Mary A. Rackham
Fund of Detroit had just given the University $6.5
million to construct a building for graduate stud-
ies and establish an endowment to support
research and other scholarly activities.
Pr cr to this donation, Taubman contributed
gifts in the 1980s toward the construction of the A.
Alfred Taubman Health Care Center and the
Taubman Medical Library.
"This is by no means his first gift, but it is his
largest," Bollinger said. "This gift is immensely
significant."
Susan Feagin, University Vice President for
Development, said gifts of such a large magnitude
are a "rare occurrence."
University Provost Nancy Cantor said
Taubman's contribution will allow the College of
Architecture and Urban Planning to grow in many
areas, since the gift came without significant
restrictions on what the funds can be used for.
Administrators said Taubman wanted his contribu-
tion to support the academic growth of the
College, along with its faculty and students.
"This is an extraordinary gift and we have no
doubt it will leave a big mark on the University,"
Cantor said.
Douglas Kelbaugh, dean of the College of
Architecture and Urban Planning, said the $30
million could be used not only on expansion, but

DANA UNNANE/Daly
The Inscription, 'One person can make a difference,' on this sculpture outside the Art and Architecture Building
could apply now to A. Alfred Taubman, whose $30 million gift will have lasting effects on the University.

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faculty recruitment.
"It will be easier to attract scholars to Ann
Arbor, rather than practitioners," Kelbaugh said.
"We will be able to build a better student-faculty
ratio."
Kelbaugh said the College will now be able to
attract first-rate faculty members and the best
graduate students from around the world.
"This will allow us to give full academic
stipends ... to 30 or 40 students," he said. "These
are not small potatoes."
With multiple spending options open to the
University, Kelbaugh said determining specifical-
ly where the money will go will be a big task.
"We are thrilled by the size of the gift, but are
sobered by what we have to do with it," he said.
Taubman is founder and chair of The Taubman
Company, Inc., a Bloomfield Hills-based corpora-
tion operating some of the nation's premiere shop-
ping facilities, like the Beverly Center in Los
Angeles, the Mall at Short Hills in New Jersey,
Cherry Creek in Denver and the Biltmore Fashion
Park in Phoenix.
Taubman also manages Metro Detroit shopping
centers, including Great Lakes Crossing in Auburn
Hills, Fairlane Town Center in Dearborn, Twelve
Oaks Mall in Novi and Lakeside Mall in Sterling
Heights, in addition to Briarwood Mall in Ann

Arbor and Woodland Mall in suburban Grand
Rapids.Ga
In a written statement, Taubman (who was out
of the country at the time his gift was announced)
said his gift reflected his commitment to the
University and interest in architecture.
"This gift represents both my deep respect for
the University of Michigan and my commitment to
the study of architecture and urban planning," he
said in the statement. "It is an honor and pleasure
for me to be able to provide this support to the
College."
Taubman is among many distinguished*
University architecture and urban planning stu-
dents, including Indian architect Charles Correa,
and Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who
helped save thousands of Hungarian Jews during
World War II.
Although Taubman did not graduate from the
University, he was awarded an honorary doctor of
laws degree in 1991.
Since the first course in architecture was offered
at the University in 1876, the size and scope of the
University's architecture program has changed,*
obtaining departmental status in 1913, and offer-
ing one of the nation's first graduate programs in
urban planning in the 1940s and a doctor of archi-
tecture degree in 1969.

inn i r '

$9.3M gift provides
graduate fellowships

By Nika Schulte
Daily Staff Reporter
The $9.3 million dollar pledge from
the Ford Motor Company Fund
announced in May by the University
and Ford Motor Company created long-
awaited graduate fellowships for
women in Business, Engineering and
Natural Resources.
Unlike previous donations from the
company which focused primarily on
the College of Engineering, the recent
pledge - one of the largest corporate
gifts in school history - will benefit a
wide range of schools and programs
including the School of Natural
Resources and the Center for the
Education of Women.
University Senior Director of
Corporation and Foundation
Relationships Jay Hartford said the col-
laboration between the University and
Ford in drafting the pledge benefited
the University's desires greatly.
"Some universities end up with a

corporate written agreement," Hartford
said. "This is really a broad-based part-
nership.
Gary Nielsen, vice-president and
executive for the Ford Motor Company
Fund, the philanthropic division of the
motor giant, said the pledge, which haS"
been in development for over 2A
months, will foster better working rela-
tionships between the company and the
University.
"In prior relations, (team members)
showed up with a large check," Nielsen
said, adding that Ford has a contact with
University faculty in each of the depart-
ments receiving funds.
Carol Hollenshead, director for the
CEW said although the center has
received funding from Ford in the past,
the recent pledge was substantial
enough to create the fellowships.
"We have for many years had schol-
arship and fellowship programs, but
never had a program of this kind,"
Hollenshead said.

THE PIERPONT-
COMMONS

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