Stories indexed with the term ‘Al Taubman’

University of Michigan board of regents meeting (April 21, 2011): Other business at Thursday’s regents meeting was upstaged by a late addition to the agenda – news that billionaire Al Taubman was giving another $56 million to the university.

The donation – to fund work at UM’s Taubman Medical Research Institute – brought his total gifts for that institute to $100 million, and his total overall UM contributions to more than $141 million. He is the largest individual donor to the university.

In conjunction with this latest gift, regents approved the renaming of the Biomedical Science Research Building – where the institute is housed – in honor of Taubman.

In thanking Taubman, board chair Julia Darlow called his gift transformative, and noted that his name has been “stamped” on the university in many ways – at the Taubman College of Architecture & Urban Planning, the Taubman Gallery at the UM Museum of Art, Taubman Health Care Center, Taubman Health Sciences Library, and the Taubman Scholars program, among others. Though he did not complete a degree, Taubman did study architecture at UM and has been involved with the institution for decades.

The real estate developer, who’s widely credited with popularizing the modern shopping mall, is not without controversy. Taubman maintains his innocence, but the former owner of Sotheby’s auction house served about nine months in federal prison in 2002 for an anti-trust conviction related to a price-fixing scheme with Christie’s, a major competitor. At the time, university officials stood by him in the face of calls to remove his name from UM buildings.

In addition to announcing Taubman’s most recent gift, the regents handled a variety of other items during their April meeting. They unanimously approved an extension of the maximum allowable tenure probationary period to 10 years, and before voting heard from several UM faculty members on both sides of the issue. Regents also approved several million dollars in infrastructure projects, as well as a new degree program in health informatics.

Chris Armstrong, who made national news after being harrassed by a former state assistant attorney general, gave his last report as outgoing student government president and was thanked by university executives for his leadership. Regent Libby Maynard told Armstrong he’d helped all of them grow during the year.

And during the time set aside for public commentary, students and staff raised several issues, including negotiations with the nurses union, campus sustainability efforts, and a proposal to partner with an Israeli university for study abroad. [Full Story]

Al Taubman, a major donor to the University of Michigan over the years, has committed another $56 million to fund medical research at UM – completing a gift of $100 million to the university for that purpose. This gift will support work at the Taubman Medical Research Institute. UM president Mary Sue Coleman announced the news at the April 21, 2011 regents meeting. Regents later approved the renaming of the biomedical science research building in honor of Taubman.

Coleman described the research – including work on ALS (known as Lou Gehrig’s disease) and other diseases – as high risk but high reward, saying Taubman’s gift would make a tremendous difference in finding cures for those diseases. Taubman also spoke at the meeting, describing some of his experiences with the university, particularly in support of stem cell research. The research holds great promise for finding cures, he said. “That’s what today’s announcement is all about.”

The gift brings the total of Taubman’s donations to UM to $141 million – he is the largest single donor to the university. His other gifts have supported the Taubman College for Architecture & Urban Planning, the UM Museum of Art, and the office of financial aid, among others.

This brief was filed from the regents boardroom at the Fleming administration building in Ann Arbor. A more detailed report will follow: [link] [Full Story]