BRONXVILLE, N.Y., Feb. 26, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --
Sarah Lawrence College announced today
that prominent alumna Barbara
Walters, noted broadcast journalist and author, together
with her charitable trust have made a gift of $15 million to establish The Barbara Walters
Campus Center on the historic College's 44-acre campus just
north of New York City in
Westchester County.
The gift represents the largest single donation in the College's
89-year history and comes as the College prepares to enter the
public phase of a capital campaign.
The Barbara Walters Campus Center, a multi-use building
that will serve as the hub of student life and campus community,
will bring together aspects of student engagement and day-to-day
social and intellectual experiences. The building will feature
adaptable social and academic spaces, a venue suitable for large
public and campus events, lounges, dining facilities, the College's
radio station, a media innovation lab, areas for career services,
student clubs, activities, and collaborative work. In addition, it
will permanently house the Barbara Walters Archives (which
will include edited video interviews, edited transcripts, and
personal letters from the notable subjects of her interviews),
which Walters announced she was donating to the College in
May 2014, and the Barbara Walters
Gallery, currently housed in the College's Heimbold Visual Arts
Center.
"The Barbara Walters Campus Center will stand as a tribute
to Barbara Walters and her belief in
the power of a Sarah Lawrence
education," said President Karen R.
Lawrence in making the announcement. "This remarkable woman
has changed the face of broadcast news by establishing her unique
genre of the investigative, long-form interview. She is a powerful
role model for our students, and we deeply appreciate her
generosity, her vision, and her many contributions to the College.
This transformative gift will enable us to create a powerful magnet
on campus –gathering spaces large and small – in which community
will flourish at Sarah Lawrence
College."
"When I donated my archives to Sarah
Lawrence last year, I told the graduating class at
Commencement that at Sarah Lawrence I learned to ask questions,"
said Walters. "I attribute my success, in many ways, to the
curiosity and confidence I came away with from this remarkable
college. Today I am pleased to be able to make The Barbara
Walters Campus Center a reality for future generations of
Sarah Lawrence students."
"One of the hallmarks of the Sarah
Lawrence campus is the convergence of living and learning,"
said Dean of the College Jerrilynn D. Dodds. "This is a college
where students and their teachers extend their intellectual
discourse beyond the classroom, hampered only by the limited number
of common spaces. The new campus center will provide a venue for an
even greater degree of this expression of the College's unique
approach to learning."
About Barbara
Walters
ABC News correspondent; "The Barbara Walters
Specials";
Creator, co-host and executive producer of ABC Daytime's "The
View"
Barbara Walters has arguably
interviewed more statesmen and stars than any other journalist in
history. She is so well known that her name and a brief biography
are listed in the American Heritage Dictionary. In September 2004, after 25 years as co-host and
chief correspondent of ABC News' "20/20," Ms. Walters left the show
to begin a new phase in her career at the network. She remains an
active member of the news division and network, substantially
increasing the number of primetime ABC News specials, in addition
to her "Barbara Walters Specials." Through the years she has
interviewed such world figures as Russia's Boris Yeltsin, China's Premier Jiang
Zemin, Great Britain's
former Prime Minister Margaret
Thatcher, Libya's Moammar
Qadaffi and Iraq's President
Sadaam Hussein. She was also the first American journalist to
interview Russia's President
Vladimir Putin and the first
interview with President and Mrs. Bush following September 11. She has interviewed every American
President and First Lady since Richard
Nixon and has made journalism history by arranging the first
joint interview with Egypt's
President Anwar Sadat and
Israel's Prime Minister
Menachem Begin in November 1977.
Ms. Walters joined ABC News in 1976 as the first woman to
co-host the network news. She is also creator and co-executive
producer of "The View." Over the years, Ms. Walters has received
national recognition for her work and has been the recipient of
numerous prestigious honors and awards, including 11 Emmy Awards,
and 2 Lifetime Achievement Awards from the National Academy of
Television Arts and Sciences.
About Sarah Lawrence
College
Founded in 1926, Sarah
Lawrence College is a prestigious, coeducational liberal
arts college. Consistently ranked among the leading liberal
arts colleges in the country, Sarah
Lawrence is known for its pioneering approach to education,
for its long history of impassioned, intellectual engagement, and
for its vibrant, successful alumni. For more information, please
visit www.sarahlawrence.edu.
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SOURCE Sarah Lawrence College