Athletic center gets major trustee gift

U niversity Trustee Edmund Hajim has announced that he's making a $2 million gift to the University's $15 million Campaign for Sports and Recreation, which is funding a sweeping reconstruction of the athletic center on the River Campus.

As Hajim announced his gift at a groundbreaking ceremony on May 14, President Thomas Jackson said that Alumni Gymnasium would be named in Hajim's honor.

The gift brings the current campaign total to $10 million. Hajim, a 1958 graduate and a resident of Greenwich, Connecticut, is campaign chairman.

"Ed Hajim's gift is wonderfully inspiring, as has been his leadership of this campaign," Jackson said.

The athletic center reconstruction, scheduled for completion in August 2000, involves the complete reconstruction of the interior of Alumni Gym and substantial improvements to the Palestra and other parts of the complex. A new, dramatic entrance, fitness facilities, locker rooms, coaches' offices, and racquet center are part of the project. The basketball court will be lengthened to bring it to current NCAA Division III standards.

The overall complex will be renamed the Robert B. Goergen Athletic Center. Goergen '60, chairman of the Board of Trustees, has given $5 million to the project.