Williams Gives $16 Million to University Museum

To kick off the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology’s six-year, $55 million fundraising campaign, Dr. Charles K. Williams II Gr’78 Hon’97, the campaign’s chairman, put his own mark on the process: by giving $16 million. The gift, announced in February, will be used to improve the climate-control and other infrastructure needs of the museum’s venerable building. An additional $9 million has been raised so far for endowment and programs.
    “Dr. Williams’ magnanimous gift—$16 million, earmarked to go to the unglamorous but ultimately vital renovation of the general utilities and air conditioning of the museum’s historic buildings—is a tremendous statement of support, and, I believe, a call for all of us who believe in the museum’s mission and vast potential to step forward and make our vision a reality,” said Dr. Jeremy A. Sabloff C’64, the museum’s director. In addition to helping turn “our grand but aging Victorian-era building” into an asset instead of a liability, Sabloff added, the museum needs to “remain active and flexible” in its international research efforts and to “disseminate information to wider and more diverse publics” in “dynamic new ways.”
    “I’ve come to realize that in order to do the exciting research, publications, and exhibition programs that are so valuable, you need to have a good base,” said Williams, a classical-world scholar and term trustee of the University who is passionate about the museum’s excavation and discovery work. “I just decided, since I’m dedicated to the programs of this museum, I could give for the things that are absolutely important to the long-term success of the institution—and the things that, from a fund-raising perspective, are usually the hardest to raise money for.”

Breaking Ground in Education

“It is not every day that a new public school is built in an American city—especially a groundbreaking public school that will benefit thousands of neighborhood schoolchildren in the years to come,” said Penn President Judith Rodin, as ground was indeed broken for the new pre-K-8 public school in University City. The school, at 42nd and Locust streets, is a collaborative effort by Penn, the School District of Philadelphia, and the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers. It will open this September for kindergarten and first-grade students, and will eventually serve up to 700 neighborhood children.
    In addition to making the site available to the School District for $1 a year, Penn is providing up to $700,000 in annual operating support for at least 10 years, and its faculty and students will be involved as student teachers, teachers, tutors, consultants, and researchers.