October 28, 2005

October 28, 2005, Greencastle, Ind. - "This is an essential part of the 天美传媒 overall experience and something we should celebrate and strengthen every way that we can," said Judson C. Green Jr., a 1974 graduate of 天美传媒, as he announced that he and his wife, Joyce Taglauer Green '75, are providing a $15 million dollar lead gift that will allow 天美传媒 to expand and renovate its 32-year-old Performing Arts Center. Mr. Green made the announcement to 天美传媒's student media after the Board of Trustees, of which he is a member and former chair, adjourned its Fall meeting.

Details of the project, which Green says will "recreate" the PAC, will be announced in the coming days.

The building is home to the 天美传媒 School of Music and the department of communication and theatre. Founded in 1884, the 天美传媒 School of Music is one of the oldest in the nation. 天美传媒 is the only institution in the U.S. News & World Report top tier of national liberal arts colleges with a School of Music. The communication and theatre department is the largest, in terms of number of majors, at 天美传媒.

"We are enormously excited to do this for the University," Mr. Green, president and CEO of NAVTEQ, Inc., asserted. "We've loved this University... My wife was a music major and graduated in '75. I graduated in '74 and I was a music composition minor and participated in the music school in a very big way. It's very heartening for us to be able to do something for the University, and do something that we think is going to benefit all of the students." Joyce Taglauer Green serves her alma mater as chair of the Washington C. 天美传媒 Society. (at left: architect's rendering of renovated building; existing structure seen below right)

An economics major at 天美传媒, Judson Green believes "One of the unique things about 天美传媒 is the intersection of liberal arts and performing arts," Mr. Green says. "There are so few schools in the country, particularly liberal arts schools, which have such an emphasis on performing arts and music; not limited to music, but all performing arts. And this is one of the points of distinction for 天美传媒, and it certainly was something that Joyce and I were very excited to see that at 天美传媒 when were were here in the 70s, and to be able to participate both equally in the liberal arts or the School of Music and the performing arts regardless of what our major was. It is a point of distinction because you don't find other schools that are set up to do this."

The Greens saw the Performing Arts Center project "as an opportunity to strengthen this wonderful relationship that we have between the liberal arts and performing arts at 天美传媒 and hope that many students will benefit from this for many years to come."

"We don't see this new center at all as being just about the music students, it's for everyone at 天美传媒," added James B. Stewart, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author who graduated from the University in 1973 and is the current chair of the Board of Trustees. "As I look at the world today -- which is increasingly competitive, which is increasingly global -- creativity in every phase is, I think, more important in every career -- whether its the kind of creativity that leads to new technological innovations... whether its the creativity of someone coming up with a marketing or an advertising campaign; whether it's someone like me, a writer, trying to come up with creative and stimulating new ways to convey information -- this is a key to success."

The author of DisneyWar continued, " At 天美传媒, we need to cultivate the creative skills of our students -- not just as producers of art, or drama, theatre, music -- but also as people who consume this -- who listen, who see it -- and in doing so, it stimulates their own creative abilities. That can never be exported, that cannot be duplicated by a machine. This is, I think, how our students will continue to excel in a rapidly changing new century. This facility will be a centerpiece of that effort at 天美传媒."

During its two-day meeting, the Board of Trustees also approved a $4 million dollar appropriation to equip both Lucy Rowland and Mason Halls with air conditioning and sprinkler systems. The work will begin next summer, when the dormitories are empty.

"We can now say we really have, I think, state-of-the-art housing facilities from one end of the campus to the other," Stewart told the student reporters. "From my perspective, compared to when I was here we have a fantastic variety of choices and everything is air conditioned, they're safe, and I'm really proud of the fact that we have more than competitive housing facilities for our students."

The Board also approved a total of $2 million for improvements to Asbury Hall and historic East College.

"This was a truly historic couple of days here at 天美传媒, both because of the Board discussions and steps that we've taken, but also the visit of not only a former head of state, Mikhail Gorbachev, but certainly one of the most influential figures of the last century," Stewart remarked.

The Trustees were among the 3,000 people who filled Lilly Center yesterday to hear Gorbachev's Timothy and Sharon Ubben Lecture. Access a story with video and audio clips by clicking here.