Donor writes about purpose, expanding CMU
As the donor identified transferring his donation from the proposed medical school to the Rose Arena expansion, please let me clarify.
Terri and I are supportive of bold, new pursuits, seeking excellence in education. We became huge fans of former President Michael Rao and his energy, vision and initiatives at CMU. We endowed a scholarship at CMU in the name of my parents, Jack and Patricia Anson, to honor them for precisely this reason.
Mike and I had several conversations out in California near our home about the need for new, iconic and architecturally significant structures on campus. We were also looking for ways to strongly support him and to encourage his tenure at CMU.
Consequently, the moment we first learned of his bold, new medical school initiative, we contacted Mike and offered to match his personal pledge dollar-for-dollar as a vote of confidence in the president and his vision for CMU and as an investment in our former hometown community. We were delighted for CMU that he had apparently made a longer term commitment to the university.
His departure announcement followed shortly on the heels thereafter just as the Rose Arena expansion fundraising effort was shaping up.
As a gesture to our dear friend and one of CMU’s leading luminaries, Dick Enberg, and at a time when following President Rao’s departure the future of the medical school was up in the air, we suggested that the pledge be transferred to the Rose Arena project. A portion of the Rose Arena project will promote Dick’s incredible legacy at CMU. We remain committed to the concept of a new medical school at CMU.
We expect to support it in the future.
Todd J. Anson, 1977 CMU alumnus
