Roy and Diana Vagelos Donate $50 Million for New Medical Education Building
September 27, 2010
Dear fellow member of the Columbia community:
We want to share with you news of a generous $50 million
donation to CUMC from College
of Physicians and
Surgeons alumnus P. Roy Vagelos, MD, and his wife, Barnard alumna Diana
Vagelos. The gift will support the
construction of a new medical and graduate education building, which will be
built on the medical center campus and named in their honor.
The Vagelos gift marks the largest received for CUMC's
capital campaign. With its receipt, the
campaign for the College
of Physicians and
Surgeons has raised more than $1 billion, making it one of the first medical
schools in the nation to achieve this level of support.
It is clear that whatever the benefits Roy and Diana Vagelos
may have gained from attending Columbia
and Barnard, they have given even more back to our university through decades
of service and support, and we are enormously grateful. With this latest demonstration of generosity,
they are helping establish a new sense of community and campus life at our
medical center in Washington
Heights that is so
important to our attracting future generations of talented medical students and
faculty. Roy Vagelos's understanding of
the resources required to train today's top medical researchers and clinicians,
and his deep and abiding engagement with Columbia,
have made him an invaluable partner in our long-term plans to enhance all
aspects of life and learning at our medical center.
The new medical education building will ensure that Columbia continues to
produce superior doctors and researchers, trained in the latest techniques, as
medicine continues to evolve rapidly throughout the 21st century. The building also will allow us to centralize
key activities in a state-of-the-art, environmentally sustainable facility that
reflects our commitment to world-class education and the quality of student
life. This project is part of an overall
medical center campus revitalization plan that will add green space, create a
new front door to the medical school, consolidate student services, and
renovate several existing buildings.
Roy and Diana's generosity of spirit is truly
inspirational. Generations of future
medical and graduate students will benefit from their support and vision for Columbia.
Sincerely,
Lee C. Bollinger, President
Lee Goldman, Dean of the Faculties of Health Sciences and
Medicine
|