$4.5-million gift gives graduate school a new home

$4.5-million gift gives graduate school a new home

The Lewis & Clark College Graduate School of Education received a $4.5-million gift from the Mary Stuart Rogers Foundation to fund its new home on the College’s newly purchased south campus (the former Franciscan Renewal Center).

Trustee John S. Rogers, president of the Mary Stuart Rogers Foundation, received a standing ovation as President Michael Mooney announced the gift to Lewis & Clark’s Board of Trustees.

The gift—the largest ever to a school of education in Oregon—enables the College to acquire, renovate and maintain a three-and-a-half-story facility, the largest building at the former Franciscan Renewal Center. The College will honor Mary Stuart Rogers by renaming it Rogers Hall. She was deeply committed to providing opportunities, particularly educational opportunities, to needy individuals who were motivated to succeed.

“Education is the whole foundation of our society,” trustee Rogers states. “Teacher education is extremely important, and Lewis & Clark has an aggressive program that will do a lot for education. It’s a pleasure to have the opportunity to help where we can.”

“Schools across the nation are facing a critical shortage of qualified teachers, administrators and counselors,” Mooney comments. “We thank the Rogers Foundation for understanding the significant role of teacher education and for its tremendous generosity. Through the gift of the foundation, K-12 students will benefit not only in Oregon but wherever Lewis & Clark teachers choose to serve.”

The College will modify the 28,000-square-foot building to provide six classrooms and 60 faculty and staff offices; to update electrical, plumbing and heating systems; to install the infrastructure for electronic com-munication; and to bring the building into compliance with building codes and the Americans with Disabilities Act. The building was built in 1951 to house novitiates of the Sisters of St. Francis.

“Faculty members are pleased and excited about the creation of Rogers Hall,” says Jay Casbon, dean of the graduate school. “Thanks to the generosity of the Mary Stuart Rogers Foundation, our entire faculty and all of our programs will be housed on the new and stunningly beautiful south campus.”

“The building will have a dramatic impact on our graduate school,” says Mooney. “It will enable the school to build on its regional reputation and to become a center of national significance.”

To better reflect the core mission of the graduate school, trustees voted to change the name from the School of Professional Studies to the School of Education.

The graduate school, with an enrollment of more than 600 students, offers programs in teacher education, educational administration, special education: deaf and hard-of-hearing, school counseling and counseling psychology.

In addition to funding the graduate school’s new home, gifts from the Mary Stuart Rogers Foundation have endowed the Mary Stuart Rogers Scholarship Fund, Mary Stuart Rogers Professorship in Education, James W. Rogers Professorship in Music and John S. Rogers Science Research Program at Lewis & Clark College.

The gift from the Rogers Founda-tion is the second the College has received toward the purchase of the Franciscan Renewal Center. Last spring, the College received a $4.3-million gift from Harriet Corbett’s estate. Harriet’s parents, Harriet and Hamilton F. Corbett, bought the 18.6-acre property in 1927 and sold it to the Sisters of St. Francis for Our Lady of Angels Convent in 1942. The property is directly south of Lewis & Clark’s main campus.