rdaner
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Will this be a renovation of the Medical Sciences Buidling or a new complex?
Jackman gift spurs a $90M windfall
U of T doubles up on two donations, creating complex for the humanities
May 16, 2007 04:30 AM
Daniel Girard
Education Reporter
Hal Jackman's name is synonymous with Canadian high finance.
But if you follow the money – and we mean big money – it's clear he has a soft spot for such nonmaterial pursuits as philosophy, history and English.
Jackman will today double – to $30 million – his donation to the study of humanities at the University of Toronto.
It's believed to be the largest individual donation to humanities in Canada and the U of T has agreed to double up on Jackman's money, making it a $90-million windfall.
In an age when the philanthropic trend in higher learning is toward funding new hospital wings, business schools and research in pure science, the largesse of Ontario's former lieutenant-governor is a welcome departure for those pursuing studies many see as irrelevant in a fast-paced world.
"I just feel the humanities are very important," said Jackman, 74, who earned a B.A. in political science and history from U of T in 1953 before going on to law school and the London School of Economics. "They're at the core of any university."
Jackman's wife, Maruja, taught humanities at U of T and York University. All five of their children have postgraduate degrees in the humanities and two teach at the university level.
"So much progress has been made in everything scientific and yet the progress we've made in human relationships is nothing to brag about," Jackman said. "We hope that advanced scholarship will contribute something to that."
In 2002, Jackman gave $15 million to humanities at U of T. The school also doubled that donation, which supported academic chairs, graduate scholarships, faculty research fellowships and an arts program.
This time around, the $15 million will help establish the Jackman Humanities Building on the site of the old Medical Arts Building at Bloor and St. George Sts. in downtown Toronto. It will house humanities departments such as English, philosophy and religion.
The money will also go toward hiring senior professors, recruiting top graduate students with new scholarships and fellowships, and creating the Jackman Humanities Institute to bring people together to work on topics of a common theme.
"Many of us think of humanities as being a lone scholar sitting down in a musty old library and thinking deep thoughts," said Pekka Sinervo, U of T's dean of the faculty of arts and science. "But it's still very much a contact sport that requires engagement with other thinkers and this gift enables that."
History professor Chad Gaffield, president of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, called the donation "a wonderful signal of the importance of ideas and studying human behaviour."
Despite "the myth of the history Ph.D. driving a taxi," Gaffield said statistics show that those who graduate with a degree in humanities and social sciences lag behind for about six months in salary once they enter the workforce but soon do as well or even better than those who studied other disciplines. That fact has helped keep enrolment high in those programs, he said.
"Students know when they sign up for these courses they will acquire competencies, ways of thinking and analyzing that will really help them later on," he said. "That type of education is something really priceless."
Jackman gift spurs a $90M windfall
U of T doubles up on two donations, creating complex for the humanities
May 16, 2007 04:30 AM
Daniel Girard
Education Reporter
Hal Jackman's name is synonymous with Canadian high finance.
But if you follow the money – and we mean big money – it's clear he has a soft spot for such nonmaterial pursuits as philosophy, history and English.
Jackman will today double – to $30 million – his donation to the study of humanities at the University of Toronto.
It's believed to be the largest individual donation to humanities in Canada and the U of T has agreed to double up on Jackman's money, making it a $90-million windfall.
In an age when the philanthropic trend in higher learning is toward funding new hospital wings, business schools and research in pure science, the largesse of Ontario's former lieutenant-governor is a welcome departure for those pursuing studies many see as irrelevant in a fast-paced world.
"I just feel the humanities are very important," said Jackman, 74, who earned a B.A. in political science and history from U of T in 1953 before going on to law school and the London School of Economics. "They're at the core of any university."
Jackman's wife, Maruja, taught humanities at U of T and York University. All five of their children have postgraduate degrees in the humanities and two teach at the university level.
"So much progress has been made in everything scientific and yet the progress we've made in human relationships is nothing to brag about," Jackman said. "We hope that advanced scholarship will contribute something to that."
In 2002, Jackman gave $15 million to humanities at U of T. The school also doubled that donation, which supported academic chairs, graduate scholarships, faculty research fellowships and an arts program.
This time around, the $15 million will help establish the Jackman Humanities Building on the site of the old Medical Arts Building at Bloor and St. George Sts. in downtown Toronto. It will house humanities departments such as English, philosophy and religion.
The money will also go toward hiring senior professors, recruiting top graduate students with new scholarships and fellowships, and creating the Jackman Humanities Institute to bring people together to work on topics of a common theme.
"Many of us think of humanities as being a lone scholar sitting down in a musty old library and thinking deep thoughts," said Pekka Sinervo, U of T's dean of the faculty of arts and science. "But it's still very much a contact sport that requires engagement with other thinkers and this gift enables that."
History professor Chad Gaffield, president of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, called the donation "a wonderful signal of the importance of ideas and studying human behaviour."
Despite "the myth of the history Ph.D. driving a taxi," Gaffield said statistics show that those who graduate with a degree in humanities and social sciences lag behind for about six months in salary once they enter the workforce but soon do as well or even better than those who studied other disciplines. That fact has helped keep enrolment high in those programs, he said.
"Students know when they sign up for these courses they will acquire competencies, ways of thinking and analyzing that will really help them later on," he said. "That type of education is something really priceless."
