The University will permanently fund the sports marketing department, move forward on the first phase of a new medical research center and take one big step toward building a three-story addition to Condon Hall, thanks in part to a $2.5 million donation by a University alumnus and his wife.
University 1968 economics graduate Dave Petrone and his wife, Nancy, both received two standing ovations Friday at a reception announcing the couple’s gift. The reception was held in Condon Hall 204, one of the rooms that will be renovated with the money to provide new laboratory space. The building is home to the anthropology, environmental studies and geography departments.
In a sometimes tearful address to a full room, Petrone said the couple felt
compelled to make the donation the largest ever for the frequent University contributors — because the people at the University inspired them.
“We love to invest in people, and people make things happen,” Petrone said. “You invest in people at the University of Oregon, and you have a great school.”
The donation will put the University one step closer to the $6.9 million needed to build a three-story, 15,000-square-foot wing onto the 79-year-old Condon Hall. The addition would include a new map and aerial photography library, classrooms, offices and laboratories. Condon Hall’s geography and anthropology departments have seen 25 percent and 20 percent enrollment increases in the past five years.
The money will also provide a permanent endowment for the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center in the University’s Lundquist College of Business, which is the top such program in the country, Petrone said.
The donation will also provide funding for the first phase of a new Center for Biomedical Research and Health Assessment for the Department of Human Physiology, a center that will allow students to work hands-on with equipment that measures the body and its functions.
Additionally, the money will permit the University to fund two Presidential scholarships and two Dean’s scholarships and will allow the University to create an endowed faculty position for a Geographic Information System librarian.
University President Dave Frohnmayer, who spoke at the event, said the couple decided how to donate the money by touring the campus and seeing which departments and programs piqued their interest.
“Their attitude is, ‘What does the University need that we might be interested in?’ which is really sort of wonderful,” Frohnmayer said.
Frohnmayer said the couple used to donate only to the athletic department, but has branched out into the academic side of the University.
“The family just started out as athletic donors, and then as they became more aware of all of the things that were happening on campus, their giving was no longer limited to athletics but has also come very strongly into the academic side,” Frohnmayer said. “A lot of the people who have been critical or skeptical about the way in which donors look at the University — this is a classic example of how all the
different aspects of the University reinforce each other.”
University Senate President Andrew Marcus, who was also present at the reception, said the “magic” about the gift was that it “transforms the educational experience for many students across many different
disciplines.”
Nancy Petrone said she was thankful for the reception and
the appreciative speeches by University faculty and administration
members.
“The people who spoke today, my first thought after hearing all of them was, ‘Wow, how could you not make a gift?’” she said. “We loved hearing how much it meant to them.”
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