Trustees plan leadership changes, rename Tyler School of Art

The Board of Trustees announced Board Chairman Patrick O’Connor will step away from the leading university role and accepted several university gifts, including one from the estate of Tupac Shakur.

The trustees approved funding for several capital projects at their meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 9. | LUKE SMITH / THE TEMPLE NEWS

The Board of Trustees announced Chairman Patrick O’Connor will step down as chair, approved the renaming of the Tyler School of Art and recognized how two trustees who recently died impacted the university in its first meeting of the academic year on Tuesday.

In his 10th year as Board chairman, O’Connor will finish his final term in the leading university role on July 31, 2019. Mitchell Morgan, the namesake of Morgan Hall and a university trustee, will replace him. O’Connor will remain on the board as a university trustee.

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

President Richard Englert began his remarks to the Board about the loss of Loretta Duckworth, who passed on Sept. 20, and celebrated her contributions to Temple.

“Loretta was a true champion of the arts and a champion of all of Temple University,” Englert said.

The university hosted a memorial service in honor of Duckworth in Rock Hall on Monday.

Englert also presented a video produced as a tribute to Lenfest, who passed away on Aug 5. In the video, members of Temple’s rowing teams thanked Lenfest for his generosity to their program.

In December 2013, H.F. “Gerry” Lenfest donated $3 million to help fund the teams and renovate their boathouse.

Englert said a “record numbers of applications and enrollments for the past 3 years” and how last year’s graduating class was a record-breaking 10,030 students. He also added how the Charles Library and the Fox School of Business construction are “transformational.”

Englert recognized trustee Nelson Diaz’s new book “Not from Here, Not from There” and said Diaz is a “trailblazer for Temple University and for the city at large.” Each trustee received a copy of the book.

TRUSTEE APPOINTMENTS

On top of the announcement that O’Connor will serve his final term as Board chairman, other trustee re-elections were held.

The Board re-elected trustees Nelson Diaz, Tamron Hall, Sandra Harmon-Weiss, Drew Katz and Michael Reed for four-year terms. They will serve on the Board from 2018 to 2022.

Trustees Daniel Polett and Christopher W. McNichol were re-elected to Temple University Hospital’s Board of Directors. Paul G, Curcillo III, a doctor at Fox Chase Cancer Center, was elected to the Temple Health Board.

The university owns Temple University Health System, which includes Fox Chase, and operates with an independent Board of Directors.  

ALUMNI RELATIONS AND DEVELOPMENT

The Board approved a $625,000 pledge for textbook scholarships from Barnes & Noble bookstores to be disbursed over 15 years.

Additionally, gifts from the estate of Tupac Shakur to Temple Libraries and the Blockson Collection were approved. The Blockson Collection is a collection of nearly 500,000 African artifacts that commemorates Black history, which is housed in Sullivan Hall.

The Board also approved the creation and naming of the Lenfest North Philadelphia Workforce Initiative.

The NPWI will provide job training and professional development classes to North Philadelphia residents.

ACADEMIC CHANGES

Tyler School of Art will be renamed to show it as an interdisciplinary college. Although the Tyler School of Art has housed architecture majors for 20 years, the school will be renamed to reflect that it offers architecture classes. The school will now be called the Tyler School of Art and Architecture. The changes will officially take place in July 2019.

Many departments within the former Tyler School of Art and the former School of Architecture will be renamed, established or eliminated in the new structure.

Rename:

  • Department of Architecture as the Department of Architecture and Environmental Design
  • Department of Graphic Arts and Design as the Department of Graphic and Interactive Design

Establish:

  • Department of Art

Eliminate:

  • Department of Crafts
  • Department of Painting, Drawing and Sculpture
  • Department of Landscape Architecture and Horticulture
  • Department of Planning and Community Development

The programs within the Department of Crafts and the Department of Painting, Drawing and Sculpture will be moved to the Department of Art. The programs within the Department of Landscape Architecture and Horticulture and the Department of Planning and Community Development will be moved to the Department of Architecture and Environmental Design.

The Board eliminated the doctor of philosophy in engineering in the College of Engineering. It also established a concentration in regulatory affairs and quality assurance for the Ph.D. in pharmaceutical sciences in the School of Pharmacy.

FACILITIES

The Board voted to authorize a $3,498,500 project to upgrade the facilities building on 1800 N. 10th Street, which hasn’t been updated since it was built in 1965, Jerry Leva told The Temple News after a facilities committee meeting on Monday.

The School of Pharmacy and Allied Health will receive $1.5 million in upgrades to classrooms, lab space, flooring, with an addition of a 150-seat lecture hall.

The Board approved $3.5 million to complete phase two of the Science Engineering Library renovation project, which will include updated lab and engineering equipment. The renovation will take 30 to 35 weeks to complete, Leva said.

This was the final Board of Trustees meeting of its 2017-18 academic year.

1 Comment

  1. Who really cares, given that Chairman of Board threaten Marc Hill because he spoke out about his political beliefs. This individual is not fit to Chair a Board for an institution of higher learning in the US.

    This Chair needs to be instructed in the reality of Israel/Palestine, how immigrants pushed another people out of their homes in Palestine where they had lived since 1300 AD, a longer tenure than any Jewish occupation of the land (!), stole all their real AND personal property and then either murder or incarcerate any of the native population objects to giving up their homes and other property. Maybe a little reading would help. Can trustees read? Just asking.

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