 |
 |
|
(From left) USF President Stephen A. Privett, S.J., Peter Maier, Chair of Friends of the Fromm Institute, Fromm Institute Executive Director Robert Fordham, Caroline Fromm Lurie, President of Friends of the Fromm Institute, and Charles Geschke, chairman of the USF Board of Trustees, at the presentation of the Fromm gift to USF on Oct. 24.
|
$10 Million Gift Provides Permanent Home for Fromm Institute
The institute that started as a pilot project more than 25 years ago and quickly redefined adult education, will soon have its own permanent home on the USF campus.
Before university officials and more than 100 Fromm students gathered on the lawn in front of Xavier Hall, the Fromm Institute for Lifelong Learning on Oct. 24 announced a $10 million gift to the university to create office and classroom space for the institute’s staff and 1,100 students. It is the largest single gift from an organization in the university’s history.
A portion of the gift will be used to create a space for the institute in Xavier Hall, which will be renamed Fromm Hall. The Fromm Institute’s home in the building will be named The Alfred and Hanna Fromm Lifelong Learning Center. The remainder of the gift will be an unrestricted donation to the university.
“I often tell USF students that learning is not a four-year sprint that terminates with your diploma. It is a life-long marathon. (The Fromm Institute) makes this real,” USF President Stephen A. Privett, S.J. said to those gathered for the ceremony. “This university welcomes the wisdom that comes from experience. You enrich us, and we are very grateful to have you here.”
The Fromm Institute was started as a pilot project in 1976 by Hanna and Alfred Fromm and is widely acknowledged as the first of its kind in the United States. It offers high-quality college courses taught by retired professors to retired citizens in the San Francisco Bay Area. Today, it offers an average of 60 courses to 1,100 students a year, all age 50 and above.
The institute is supported exclusively by private donations, with sizable contributions made by Hanna and Alfred Fromm during their lifetimes.
The renovations to Xavier Hall will create institute offices and classroom space, which will be convertible into one large multipurpose room that could be used by the university and St. Ignatius Parish on weekends. The building will continue to house a residence hall and fine arts studios.
“There will be a great opportunity for the mingling of generations,” said Robert Fordham, director of the Fromm Institute. “This is really being done for two people—Alfred and Hanna Fromm, who were dedicated people who only wanted their program to be the best it can be. We all hope this is a fitting legacy.”
The Fromms’ daughter, Caroline Fromm-Lurie, said her parents would be pleased. “Knowing my father as I did, this is what he would say: ‘I had no idea that this school would end up serving so many people in such a meaningful way…to keep their minds vibrant,’” she said. “‘Here I am a refugee, a lover of America, so proud that I could give back to the country that has given me so much.’”
Renovations on the institute’s new home are expected to begin this winter and to be complete by fall 2005.
Institute students who attended the ceremony were enthusiastic about the plan.
“I think it’s a wonderful idea,” said Jeanne Shimmon, a former teacher and school administrator who has taken classes at the institute for three years. “When you look at all of the seniors that are here, they are all enthusiastic and they all want to be here. That alone is a testament to the institute’s success.”
|
