|
|
|
News from PRINCETON UNIVERSITY For immediate release: Oct. 2, 2001 Contact: Marilyn Marks (609) 258-3601, mmarks@princeton.edu Princeton dedicates the Friend Center for Engineering EducationPrinceton, N.J. -- Princeton University on Saturday dedicated the Friend Center for Engineering Education, created to encourage all students -- engineers and non-engineers alike -- to acquire the technological understanding essential for life in the 21st century. The imposing, light-filled building, designed by Henry N. Cobb of the renowned architectural firm Pei Cobb Freed & Partners of New York, is located at the corner of Olden and Williams streets, near Princeton's School of Engineering and Applied Science. It was established through a generous gift from University Charter Trustee Dennis J. Keller '63, chair and chief executive officer of DeVry Inc., in memory Peter W. Friend '63. The two, childhood friends since grade school in Hinsdale, Ill., were roommates at Princeton. Friend died while an undergraduate, just before his 21st birthday. "In the enduring connection between Dennis Keller and Peter Friend, this new center symbolizes the bonds of friendship and devotion that are woven so strongly into the fabric of our University community," said Princeton President Shirley M. Tilghman. "The Friend Center will serve as a wonderful new resource for engineering students, and also as an important academic gateway, introducing undergraduates from other disciplines to the vastly interesting and vital study of technology and applied science." Keller, who majored in economics and founded the Student Pizza Agency at Princeton, went on to co-found the Keller Graduate School of Management, which changed its name to DeVry Inc. in 1987 and is now one of the largest private higher education systems in North America. He envisions the Friend Center as a magnet for engineers and students in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. "In this century, every citizen will be better served by an understanding of how technology can enhance our daily lives, and how it can work in the future," he said. The Friend Center, designed to support a broad spectrum of interdisciplinary teaching and study, encompasses easily reconfigured high-tech classrooms and computer clusters, a distance-learning room set up for video-conferencing, a spacious convocation hall, a 250-seat auditorium outfitted with the latest in audiovisual technology, and a multi-tiered library which features electronic journals and seats wired for power and data access.
|