The Board of Trustees elected Marguerite Lenfest as its newest trustee, made curriculum revisions for three colleges and approved multiple facility projects worth more than $4 million at its meeting on Tuesday.
The Board re-distributed a $950,000 gift — $500,000 of which was originally donated to support the construction of an on-campus football stadium facility.
On Tuesday, the Board also released a statement of condemnation against Marc Lamont Hill’s United Nations speech last month.
Trustee appointments
The Board unanimously elected philanthropist Marguerite Lenfest, the wife of the late trustee and notable city philanthropist Gerry Lenfest, to the university’s board until October 2019.
Lenfest said she will act in her husband’s interest on the board, as well as use her past experience to help make decisions for the university.
“Gerry became such a fan of Temple University,” she said. “I’m trying to do things that, first of all, would be in his best interest. Secondly, I grew up in Philadelphia, and I went all through the public schools so this should be a good fit for me, too.”
The university board seat will be Lenfest’s 13th position serving Philadelphia institutions, including the board of trustees for Wilson College from 1993 to 2001. She took over as president and director of The Lenfest Foundation after Gerry Lenfest’s death in August.
The Board also unanimously elected Martin Ogletree, a drug discovery and development leader, to the Temple Health System’s board until 2021 and re-elected Edward Glickman, a University of Pennsylvania and Harvard-educated business professor, to the TUHS board for another three-year term.
Facilities approvals and updates
The Board approved a $2.7 million renovation to the IBC Student Recreation Center on 15th Street near Cecil B. Moore.
The center will close for a few weeks in Fall 2019 for renovations, said Jerry Leva, the vice president of planning and capital projects, at the facilities subcommittee meeting on Monday.
Dental rooms at the Kornberg School of Dentistry will receive more than $1.8 million for renovations on its Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning systems, upgraded lighting and window treatments. Leva said the project will take an estimated 17 to 19 weeks to complete.
The Charles Library is on schedule to reach “substantial completion” by May 2019, Leva added. It will open for the start of the Fall 2019 semester.
Expenses and donations
The Board unanimously approved a $950,000 contribution for the university’s athletics.
The Board approved changes to a $950,000-donation that was initially for an on-campus stadium, which is on hold pending city approvals.
Donors pledged $500,000 of the $950,000 in 2017 to support the construction of an on-campus stadium. Now, $750,000 will go toward renovating the Pearson-McGonigle basketball practice facility, $150,000 to the construction of nutrition stations at Edberg-Olson Hall and $50,000 for the 2019-20 Owl Club Annual Fund.
A university spokesperson could not immediately comment on why the donation was re-appropriated.
The Board also authorized the university to borrow $30 million for “operating purposes” from January 1, 2019 through March 31, 2019.
The Board approved an endowed chair in the Beasley School of Law honoring Robert Reinstein, a former dean of the school and the current Clifford Scott Green Chair Professor of Law.
Two endowed scholarships in the Lewis Katz School of Medicine and the Fox School’s Department of Risk, Insurance, and Healthcare Management were also approved.
Curriculum changes
The board approved the Academic Affairs Committee to adjust the curriculum in the College of Public Health, the Fox School of Business and the College of Education.
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