Friday, September 21, 2012

U-M praises $32.5M gift for art, design school

The University of Michigan will use a $32.5-million gift to further its art and design education, officials said Thursday.

The gift, one of the largest ever in the nation to an arts and design school, was formally accepted by the Board of Regents at its regular meeting Thursday.


The gift from alumna Penny Stamps will be matched by $7.5 million from the university -- adding a total of $40 million to the school, which will be renamed the Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design. The school will become the fourth college on Michigan's campus to be named after an individual.


"It has been very rewarding for us to be a part of A&D's growth and development during these past 15 years," Stamps said. "We have been pleased to see our investments in the school make a compelling difference to the school's excellence and prominence, and our involvement has escalated as a result."
U-M officials praised the gift.


"The depth of the Stamps' support is hard to fathom, because it will shape students' experiences and opportunities for decades to come," said U-M President Mary Sue Coleman.


The money will go to areas including student scholarships, said Dean Gunalan Nadarajan.
The gift's main impact will be to allow the school to continue its teaching focus.


"It's an amazing gift that will really transform the school," Nadarajan said. "We're different than other art and design schools out there. We are committed to training our students as creative problem solvers, not just painters and sculptors."


Stamps, a 1966 design graduate of U-M, founded the Boston-based Penny W. Stamps Interiors, where she was chief designer until the mid-1990s. Her husband, Roe Stamps, is co-founder and managing partner of Summit Partners, a growth equity investment firm in Boston.


They live in Florida, but have been heavily involved in U-M in recent years. The couple fund a lecture series that has brought people such as Bill T. Jones, Philip Glass, Oliver Stone, Marina Abramovic and Temple Grandin to campus.

More Details: U-M President Mary Sue Coleman donates pay raise to scholarship

For the second year in a row, University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman has donated her pay raise to a travel abroad scholarship for students.


The Board of Regents approved a 3% raise — $17,574 — for her at its meeting Thursday. It brings her base salary to $603,357. Last year, Coleman got a 2.75% raise.


Coleman was recently ranked as the fifth-highest paid university president in the nation in terms of total compensation by the Chronicle of Higher Education.

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