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The campaign to complete funding for the new Alter Hall is underway and gaining momentum
By fall semester 2008, Temple University’s changing skyline will be mirrored in the spectacular curved metal roof of the new Alter Hall. World-renowned architect Michael Graves and his Philadelphia partner Burt Hill Kosar Rittelman are designing this much-needed new home for The Fox School of Business as a tangible reflection of the school’s globally recognized quality.
“The Fox School’s national prominence comes from our combined emphasis on essential components that create the school’s unique value chain: top students, rigorous academic programs, quality faculty, successful professional development programs, deep corporate and community outreach, cutting-edge technology, and committed alumni.” said M. Moshe Porat, dean of The Fox School.
“Alter Hall is a significant link in the value chain enabling The Fox School to deliver world-class business management education. The building, which will have state-of-the-art technology, gives us the opportunity to move our students even further ahead on the technology curve and prepare them in the best way possible for their careers,” Porat added.
Generosity Enables Growth
Gisela and Dennis Alter have given The Fox School of Business the largest gift it has ever received and the second largest in Temple University history: $15 million. Their gift is critical to making the Alter Hall vision a reality. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has also allocated $25 million to the project. Temple University has used bond proceeds to match this amount.
The Campaign for Alter Hall, began early in 2004, is continuing to pick up speed, and The Fox School of Business is raising additional funds for this $80-plus-million cutting-edge facility.
Just this spring, Dick Fox, for whom The Fox Business School is named, and his wife, Gerry, held a reception at their home to generate interest in the Alter Hall project and to showcase the latest designs of the building. At the reception, Fox, who was chair of Temple’s Board of Trustees for 17 years, presented The Fox School with a generous donation towards the building campaign.
“The new building is being designed in a way that considers all The Fox School’s key missions: technology, entrepreneurship and innovation, globalization and ethics. Alter Hall, with its central location, will be the new centerpiece for Temple University’s main campus,” said Fox.
The reception also provided an opportunity to introduce Temple’s new president, Ann Weaver Hart — who took the helm for Temple University on July 1 — to Fox School stakeholders.
Alter Hall will advance The Fox School in many ways. It will provide a superb learning facility and support the School’s growing reputation for excellence by facilitating the recruitment of outstanding faculty and students. It will also become increasingly important as a venue for activities involving business and professional leaders in our community, city and state,” said Hart.
President Hart stressed the importance of Alter Hall to the Temple community and to the greater Philadelphia area. “As the principal supplier of management and professional talent in the area, The Fox School is a major player in fueling our region’s vibrant economic engine,” she said.
Fox School Dean M. Moshe Porat, who also spoke at the reception, added, “What is most important about The Fox School is not our rankings or other notable achievements, but the way our school transforms lives. Alter Hall will enable the school to accelerate its transformational effect, which is why we have named the campaign ‘Building Fox, Transforming Lives.”
Other Fox stakeholders — faculty, staff, alumni and community members—also have demonstrated their commitment for The Fox School with significant gifts for the Campaign for Alter Hall.
Generous donations have come from Fox School friends like Arnie Katz, president and founder of Brokerage Concepts Inc. Katz, who has been on the Fox Board of Visitors since its creation in 2002 said, “I am an admirer of the school and of Dean Porat. I believe that The Fox School’s faculty are among the most talented educators in the country. If people want to see business education advance in the region, they too should make a contribution.”
The faculty/staff fundraising campaign, led by Arvind Phatak, Laurel Carnell professor of general and strategic management and international business, Robert D. Hamilton, III, professor of general and strategic management, and Debbie Campbell, assistant dean for Undergraduate Programs, is also vital to the success of the Campaign for Alter Hall.
“As a double Fox alum – BBA and MBA – I know first-hand how much Alter Hall’s resources will improve the education we are giving to our students. Right now, business students are using the Tech Center more than other Temple students. The Fox School’s students, faculty and staff really have a pressing need for a new facility, and the Faculty/Staff Fundraising Campaign will help to make this vision a reality,” said Campbell.
The faculty/staff campaign has raised $245,950, thanks to responsive faculty like Bill Wei, professor of statistics and former chair of the Department of Statistics. Wei’s donation will fund the future Statistics Reading Room.
“I care about the field of statistics and I know that The Fox School needs a reading room for faculty and students. Like many of my peers, I have close ties with Temple, The Fox School and my department. Everyone who works at Fox should support Alter Hall,” said Wei.
Many Fox alumni who feel the same close ties to their alma mater also are eagerly donating to the campaign. One such alumnus is Irwin L. Gross, who endowed the Irwin L. Gross eBusiness Institute. “My work takes me to many places in the United States and abroad, and I am gratified that the increasing national and international recognition for the quality business education offered by The Fox School is being noticed by executives, accountants and other professionals.”
Reflection of Fox School’s Business Learning Environment
The urban-oriented design by world-renowned architect Michael Graves and his Philadelphia partner Burt Hill Kosar Rittelman, will enable The Fox School to provide students with an even stronger education. Alter Hall will offer the latest technology and newest methods in teaching and research while simulating the corporate environment and facilitating collaboration between students, faculty and community and business leaders.
The new 200,000-plus square-foot, seven-story, state-of-the-art facility will dramatically increase the school’s existing space and consolidate, under one roof, classrooms and offices currently spread out in nine different buildings across campus.
John DeAngelo, associate dean for information technology at the Fox School of Business explained, “Both the Alter Hall design and the fact that all students and faculty will now be in one building will dramatically improve communication and collaboration. Through its use of cutting-edge technology and resources, and its abundance of meeting spaces, the design will facilitate collaboration, communication and community, preparing students to work effectively in a corporate environment.”
Some of the specific features that encourage the teamwork that is intrinsic to the corporate world include breakout rooms, interviews rooms, recruiting offices, conference centers, and a Business Simulation Lab/Trading Room, where students will learn to trade securities and solve simulated finance and marketing problems.
New sophisticated classrooms will be tailored to facilitate learning through group work, not just lectures. In some classrooms, rows of desks will pivot so they can change from straight rows to quadrants, making discussion and teamwork easier.
Faculty also will benefit from an abundance of collaboration spaces. A communicating staircase connecting academic department floors will allow faculty to collaborate quickly and easily.
The design will also enable The Fox School to continue to advance its position as a pioneer in applying technology in the classroom. Currently, The Fox School is one of the largest users of classroom-capture technology in the nation.
The new facility also builds on strong technology investments already made at Temple University Center City, the Tuttleman Learning Center, Speakman Hall, the current home of The Fox School, and the new, highly acclaimed Tech Center. The advanced technology in these buildings has helped Temple earn its reputation as one of the most connected colleges in the nation.
Strengthening The Fox School’s position as a technology pioneer, one technology innovation in Alter Hall is the use of a tablet PC to project and save instructor annotations for later use and review by students. Another innovation is “smart” classrooms with redesigned podiums with built-in control systems for room lighting, image control and podium height adjustment.
Technology will also enhance lounges and work spaces. Besides the main first floor student lounge, encircled by an electronic ticker tape banner, students will find many areas with large flat-panel LCD displays for campus and world news, Internet stations for checking e-mail, and devices for reserving breakout rooms throughout the building.
Together, all these features will make Alter Hall a building that is distinctive, flexible, and relevant to the information age, a building that both reflects and helps shape The Fox School’s business learning environment.
“Curtis Hall already has been leveled to make way for Alter Hall. Final engineering and architecture plans have been drawn up. We now need to complete the funding,” said Howard A. Cohen, the associate dean of The Fox School of Business and manager of the Alter Hall Campaign. “Not only will Alter Hall create a new business learning environment at Fox, but we envision Alter Hall as a home to our students, even after they graduate — a place where they can continue to learn from each other every day.”
