Roseburg couple makes $5 million gift

EUGENE, Ore.—"Welcome home" is the message University of Oregon officials plan to send alumni, students, faculty, and visitors with the planned construction of the university's first alumni center.

University of Oregon President Dave Frohnmayer announced June 12 that Cheryl Ramberg Ford '66 and her husband, Allyn, president of Roseburg Forest Products, have made a $5 million lead gift for the new center. The gift launches a drive to raise a total of $15 to $20 million in private donations to fund the project. Cheryl Ford is the incoming president of the University of Oregon Alumni Association (UOAA).

"Because of the generosity of the Fords and future donors, alumni and other visitors will now have a home base on campus," Frohnmayer said. "The new center will serve as a bridge to bring all parts of the University of Oregon family together and to strengthen the bonds that tie all of us to the university's rich heritage and bright future. The alumni center will also form part of a more inviting new east entryway to the campus."

In addition, the center will bring the university up to par with the rest of the Pac-10 Conference universities, all of which have alumni centers.

The proposed location for the new center is a site along Franklin Boulevard between Agate Street and 13th Avenue. The site is now occupied by an employee parking lot.

"It's important for alumni to have a place to gather and call their own," said Cheryl Ford. "We want more alumni to get involved with the university and the new center will encourage that involvement."

"The future of the university is very much tied to its alumni because increasingly, they are the ones providing the leadership and resources for the university to move forward," said Allyn Ford. "The new alumni center will provide a focus point for this very important group of people."

"An alumni center on the University of Oregon campus has been a dream of many for several years," said Jeff Nudelman '83 of Lake Oswego, outgoing president of the UOAA. "The construction of a first-class alumni center is critical to enable the UOAA to continue to serve as the premier constituency organization for the University. This incredibly generous gift from the Fords will allow the university to maintain and strengthen connections with its students, faculty, alumni and the community for generations to come."

At their recently concluded meetings, both the UOAA and the University of Oregon Foundation boards voted to support fundraising and construction of the Alumni Center. "Our aspiration is to be among the top 25 public research universities in the United States," said Bob Kraus '63, chair of the University of Oregon Foundation Board. "To achieve, that, we need the tools to generate the resources to fuel that vision. The Alumni Center is essential to achieving that vision."

The new center, which has not yet been designed, will contain an assembly hall/ballroom with catering facilities, conference and meeting room space, display areas to recognize university history and alumni accomplishments, and offices for the Alumni Association, University of Oregon Foundation and the university's Office of Development. These organizations are currently housed in Agate Hall, a building originally constructed as an elementary school in 1924 that is not equipped to meet the long-range needs of the university's outreach operations.

The timeline for construction of the new center has not yet been determined.

Posted: June 12, 2006