Gleason gift supports library renovations

$5 million gift from the Rochester-based Gleason Foundation accelerates a $15 million fundraising campaign now under way to redesign Rush Rhees Library's east wing. The renovation project will open new spaces for better use of information technology and for academic and social interaction 24 hours a day.

A Teaching and Learning Center also will be established to support collaborative learning where students, library research collections, and state-of-the-art teaching technology can work in unison.

"Through the Gleason gift, I can feel the momentum building to make the learning center a reality," says Ronald Dow, the Andrew H. and Janet Dayton Neilly Dean of River Campus Libraries. "This plan brings the same dynamic character that we have in our impressive historic spaces to areas that can meet new educational endeavors."

James Gleason '68S (MBA), chairman of Gleason Corporation and chairman of the Gleason Foundation, is a life trustee of the University and a graduate of the William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration. His wife, Janis, serves as a director of the Gleason Foundation and has been active for many years with the Friends of the University of Rochester Libraries.

The Gleason Foundation gave $500,000 two years ago for the renovation of the Great Hall of Rush Rhees Library as part of the University's Sesquicentennial. At the Simon School, the foundation has funded capital projects, faculty support, curriculum development, and research.

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