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UI Writers' Workshop Schaeffer Library will be dedicated Oct. 20
Posted October 4, 2006
IOWA CITY -- The Glenn Schaeffer Library and Archive addition to the Dey House, home of the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop, will be dedicated in a free, public event at 4 p.m. Friday, Oct. 20. The Dey House is located at 507 N. Clinton St., just south of the UI president's residence. The 8,500-square-foot, $2.4 million addition, which has more than doubled the Iowa Writers' Workshop facilities, is named for 1977 workshop graduate Glenn Schaeffer in recognition of his $1 million gift to the University of Iowa Foundation for the project. Schaeffer, president and chief executive officer of Fountainebleau Resorts in Las Vegas, will speak at the dedication. The addition was designed by the Iowa firm of OPN Architects, Inc. Other speakers will include UI Interim President Gary Fethke; Linda Maxson, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; Lan Samantha Chang, director of the Iowa Writers' Workshop; Michael Gartner, president of the Board of Regents, State of Iowa; and Dora Malech, a recent workshop graduate. The event will be hosted by Lynette Marshall, president of the University of Iowa Foundation. Tours of the facility will begin following a brief ribbon-cutting ceremony. The Schaeffer Library provides the workshop with more classrooms and offices and a space for public readings, in addition to the library and archive of works by workshop alumni and faculty. "This glorious, light-filled building is already having a tremendous positive effect on our program," Chang says. "Students, teachers and staff have been struck by the beauty and tranquility that suffuse every room, creating an ideal atmosphere for writing, contemplation and learning. We are delighted to open this new space to the public on dedication day." Schaeffer is a literary philanthropist who founded the International Institute of Modern Letters, which has became the Black Mountain Institute at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas He also established the Schaeffer Fellowships, which have supported students at the UI and other universities. For many years he was president and chief financial officer of the Mandalay Resort Group, before becoming president and CEO of Fontainebleau Resorts. Schaeffer's gift for the Iowa Writers' Workshop was part of a comprehensive campaign that ran through 2005 and was conducted under the guidance of the UI Foundation. Named "Good. Better. Best. Iowa: The Campaign to Advance Our Great University," the seven-year effort raised private funds to help launch a variety of initiatives across the university, substantially increase the number of UI scholarships and endowed faculty positions, support new educational and research facilities, build the UI's endowment and fund outreach and service programs to benefit Iowans. The Writers' Workshop is a graduate program in the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The UI Foundation is acknowledged by the UI as a preferred channel for private contributions that benefit all areas of the university. Visit www.uifoundation.org. Contact Information
Margaret Reese Additional information about supporting the Writers' Workshop also is available on this site. |