November 5, 2007 UO Celebrates HEDCO Education Building On Friday, October 26, the university celebrated a $48.1 million project for the UO College of Education with a ceremonial groundbreaking. :: READ MORE       :: PHOTOS ONLINE A Living Memorial Mirna Toukatly, a native of Beirut, Lebanon, is the first recipient of the full tuition scholarship established by Lee and Helen Van Nice of Corvallis in memory of their daughter Faith. :: READ MORE "A Meeting Place for the World" Remodeled, Renamed On Friday, October 12, the university unveiled the $1.3 million renovation of the newly-named Mills International Center, funded in part by 185 donors from across the world. :: READ MORE       :: PHOTOS ONLINE Recent Gifts to Campaign Oregon Following are just a few of the many recent contributions from private donors to Campaign Oregon: Transforming Lives: Marcia Aaron—$100,000 pledge for the UO Alumni Center Kathie and Daniel Bedbury—$25,000 pledge for the UO Alumni Center Peggy and Jack Borsting—$25,000 pledge for the Jack and Peggy Borsting Award for Scholastic Achievement in Graduate Mathematics Jean and Art Carmichael—$100,000 pledge for the UO Alumni Center Steve D. Larson—$26,587 to establish the Steve D. Larson Law Scholarship Gloria and Robert Lee—$50,000 pledge for the Gloria Tover Lee Art History Scholarship Endowment Francis M. More—$90,000 pledge establishing the John Taylor More Scholarship for International Students Precision Castparts—$125,000 pledge for the Gilbert-Peterson Hall Renovation Fund UO Celebrates Groundbreaking for HEDCO Education Building Watch online movie of groundbreaking (requires Quicktime or Windows Media Player) :: Quicktime :: Windows Media Player Work on an immense excavation project that is transforming the southwest side of the University of Oregon campus stopped just long enough on the morning of October 26 to allow a ceremonial groundbreaking for the HEDCO Education Building. The new facility is the centerpiece of a $48.1 million project that will nearly double space for the UO College of Education. Completion is expected in the summer of 2009. "We are building beyond walls," said UO President Dave Frohnmayer. "Today we celebrate the first new construction for the College of Education since 1980, creating a facility worthy of the program's international reputation. The research, scholarship, and training that will be conducted within the walls of the HEDCO Education Building will reach far beyond the campus." Expansion and renovation of the education complex is a top priority for Campaign Oregon: Transforming Lives and is the latest major project to be initiated in the state's most successful philanthropic effort. The new building is named for a California-based foundation whose president, 1969 UO graduate Dody Jernstedt, holds bachelor's and master's degrees from the college's communication disorders and sciences program. The foundation's lead gift of $10 million in 2004 launched the "Building Beyond Walls" fundraising effort and inspired the 2005 Oregon legislature to authorize $19.4 million in general obligation bonds for the project. The project gained momentum with a $12.5 million lead gift, including a $2.5 challenge grant from philanthropist Lorry Lokey. About $1.5 million is left to be raised to meet the challenge. All told, gifts from more than 300 alumni, community educators, and members of the UO faculty and staff are covering about 60 percent of construction costs, according to Michael Bullis, dean of the College of Education and Sommerville-Knight Professor of education. "The HEDCO Education Building will stand as a dream fulfilled and a promise for the future," he said. For many of the school's faculty and staff members, the new building means a welcome end to the era of "temporary" housing in trailers that has lingered for nearly four decades. "This building will open up new areas of collaboration by providing the space needed to bring together the college's clinical, teaching, and research efforts," said Rob Horner, associate dean for research and Alumni-Knight Professor of education. The building site will connect the college's existing quad of historic brick buildings at 1571 Alder Street with its Clinical Services Building, which is situated southwest of the MarAbel B. Frohnmayer Music Building on East 18th Avenue. The design for the new building was created by Thomas Hacker Architects Inc., of Portland. A hallmark of the project is the premium placed on making the entire education complex more accessible for individuals with disabilities. The HEDCO Education Building will provide specialized spaces for teaching, assessment, and therapeutic services along with a faculty research hub, student services center, and learning commons. Integrated clinic facilities will serve the college's three clinical programs: communication disorders and sciences, couples and family therapy, and counseling psychology. About the Lead Donors to the College of Education Expansion and Renovation Project HEDCO is a private foundation that supports a wide range of philanthropic endeavors, from gifts to purchase equipment and provide technology for projects advancing scientific and medical research to grants for building projects that support professional practice or address social welfare, such as housing for the homeless, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, YMCAs, and shelters for abused women. Lokey's gifts to the UO total $132 million for academics including $12.5 million for the College of Education's expansion project. A native of Portland, Lokey is the founder of Business Wire, the world's leading international news release wire service. He credits much of his success in life to the education he received at Alameda Elementary School and Grant High School in Portland. :: BACK TO TOP A Living Memorial As biochemistry undergraduate Mirna Toukatly begins her final year at the university, she carries forward the legacy of another UO chemistry student who went on to become the first person awarded a medical degree posthumously by Harvard Medical School. Toukatly, a native of Beirut, Lebanon, is the first recipient of the full tuition scholarship established by Lee and Helen Van Nice of Corvallis in memory of their daughter Faith, a 1984 graduate of the UO Robert D. Clark Honors College whose brilliant career was cut short at thirty-one by cervical cancer. When Faith died in 1993, a lengthy feature story published by The Boston Globe was headlined, "So young, so gifted, so missed." At the UO, her honors college thesis grew out of a joint effort between the lab's organic chemist John Keana and physical chemist Bruce Hudson, both professors. "Faith was among the brightest, if not the brightest, of the undergraduates I've had," Keana recalls. "Besides that, she was a nice person—gregarious and a joy to have in the laboratory." Faith went on to work under a Nobel Prize winner while earning her doctorate in physical chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. At Harvard, she was described as an authority on surgical research projects involving a then-new tool, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) spectroscopy, an interest she developed as an undergraduate. In the early 1980s, about the time Faith graduated summa cum laude from the UO, Toukatly's relatives began filling out immigration forms for her. Finally, in 2003, she was granted permission to move to the United States. Like Faith, Toukatly aims to continue clinical research when she becomes a physician. She has worked as a researcher in Assistant Professor Darren Johnson's organic chemistry lab and at Mitosciences, a Eugene-based pharmaceutical company. She also has experienced the human side of medicine by volunteering at Sacred Heart Medical Center and Volunteers in Medicine. The similarities between the two women extend beyond their career interests to include athletic pursuits. Van Nice swam competitively and ran marathons. Toukatly played basketball for Lebanon's national team and Lane Community College, which she attended for a year before transferring to the UO. After Faith died, Lee and Helen thought about setting up a memorial scholarship at Harvard, where Faith became a physician, or at MIT, where she studied under a Nobel laureate while earning her doctorate in physical chemistry. Ultimately they decided their contribution would have more impact at the UO. "We're thinking our daughter would be pleased that we chose this, for a number of reasons, and we're having a good time working to make it happen," Lee says. Recently he and Helen decided to create a permanent endowment with what would have been Faith's share of their estate. Eventually it will provide full tuition awards for three students each year. Lee says the UO chemistry department "already provides a distinctively supportive environment for young women studying science." He hopes Faith's scholarship will provide added incentive for student achievement. "The intent is to foster excellence in science," says Lee, who became familiar with the world of high-achieving college students while recruiting employees for Tektronix and Hewlett Packard, where he was a chemist. This summer Toukatly had the opportunity to meet the Van Nices and learn more about Faith. She came away inspired. "I really admire what Faith did, and I'm trying to follow her path," she says. The UO is building on its tradition of encouraging women to enter careers in the sciences. For details about the College of Arts and Sciences’ new Women in Technology and Science initiative, visit WITS. :: BACK TO TOP Meeting Place for the World: Remodeled, Renamed One word says it all. "Welcome" is expressed in thirty-seven languages in colorful fused art glass in the Mills International Center. Thanks to private gifts and student funds, the gathering space for international students (and the entire university) is more welcoming than ever. On October 12, more than 300 students, faculty and staff members, and guests celebrated the $1.3 million renovation of the newly named center, located above the post office in the Erb Memorial Union. More than 180 donors from across the world funded approximately 25 percent of the project, and the Associated Students of the University of Oregon and the university paid for the rest. Though student fees covered more than half the costs, private gifts were invaluable for two key reasons. First, this funding provided the seed money to hire an architect, develop a plan, and create promotional materials that, in turn, garnered additional gifts and made a convincing case to the Associated Students of the University of Oregon. Second, they covered many of the little extras that make this place special. The center is named in honor of Tom Mills, who retired in 2005 as associate vice president for international programs. "Tom’s career-long efforts helped make the University of Oregon a home away from home for thousands of international students," said Chunsheng Zhang, vice provost for international affairs and outreach. "The center he helped create has become a meeting place for the world right here on campus. I can think of no better tribute to Tom’s career than the Mills International Center." "It’s a place where I can see people from around the world," says Evans Temi, a junior from Tanzania who is director of the African Students Association. Formerly known as the International Resource Center, it was the first place Temi visited when he came to campus. "I feel like a global citizen when I’m here. Nobody really cares where you’re from. You’re an international student, period. It’s like international waters." The renovation includes a state-of-the-art sound system and a large flat-screen television for watching films and international news. The center also features two working fireplaces for fireside gatherings on Oregon’s cool winter days, new offices for international student groups, and comfortable furniture. As diverse as the people it serves, the new space is cozy enough for students to relax and formal enough to host a reception for international dignitaries. In addition to an extensive collection of international magazines, the center also offers travel and guide books. "This is a leading university in terms of international education," says Mills. "A large part of that is due to Dave Frohnmayer and his emphasis on internationalization. But there is also something special about the University of Oregon culture--a deep-seated interest in the world by students and faculty members." In the thirty-five years Mills worked at the UO, he advised countless international students, initiated a wide range of exchange and study-abroad programs and increased international alumni outreach. Also, during this time, the large reading room in the EMU evolved into a gathering place for both international students and those from the U.S. curious about traveling, cultural exchange, and the world. "This center," says Mills, "is a place to bring students together, to help them discover and appreciate other cultures. Some students develop lifelong friends from other countries. Others use their new skills to become diplomats and international leaders." The center, which is overseen by coordinator Sonja Rasmussen, hosts more than 200 internationally focused gatherings each year, such as a film series and an international poetry night, as well as Friday afternoon coffee hours. Since its formal establishment as an international resource center in 2001, it has received about 15,000 visits each year from students and members of the faculty and community. The UO hosts more than 1,200 international students from close to ninety countries. It offers more than 140 study-abroad and internship opportunities, enabling more than 25 percent of UO undergraduate students to study abroad during their stays at the UO. The following organizations and individuals contributed to the Mills International Center: AHA International Associated Students of the University of Oregon Erb Memorial Union Hanyang University, South Korea International Affairs Japan Chapter UO Alumni Association Takashi Abe Jeanne and David Brewer Teiji Hosoda Emiko and Atsushi Kageyama Kazuko and Shinya Maeda Toshitake Matsuki Hideko and Junji Numata Toyoki Okabayashi Glory and Thomas Philip Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies Gail and William Scearce :: BACK TO TOP