News Release (April 19, 1968)

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RELEASE NEw CoLLEGE SARASOTA, FLORIDA 33578 1 169 -4/19/68 813 / 355-7131 Ref.: Furman c. Arthur FOR RELEASE: IMMEDIATE The East Campus facilities of New College--designed by I. M. Pei--would be converted to their originally-intended use as a continuing education center under terms of a proposal now before trustees of the college. If the proposed plan is carried out, and it has already been approved in principle, hundreds of executives of major business and industrial firms would come to the local area each year for courses ranging in length from a few days to a few weeks. Also, the college's undergraduate students would move across u.s. Highway #41 to new dormitories to be constructed on the bayfront campus. This move, too, would be in accord with longstanding plans of the college and would produce important educational and financial benefits, according to President John Elmendorf. The proposal has been advanced by Conference Service Corporation (CSC) of New York, a company with experience in the design and management of executive education centers. more

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NEW COLLEGE Page 2 President Elmendorf said it is hoped that final agreement on a management contract with esc can be reached by May 3, when the trustees will be holding their annual meeting at the college. Among the benefits of the plan for the college and for the community, Dr. Elmendorf listed the following: --Unification of the undergraduate campus on the west side of the highway and construction of new residences specifically designed for undergraduate students. --Introduction to the two-county community of large numbers of middle-and upper-management executives who would be on campus for varying periods of study. --Production of supplemental income to help cover operating costs of the college. --Creation of a year-round new "industry" providing employ ment for a number of people and income to local suppliers. CSC now has under construction an executive conference center on the former Pratt Estate at Glen Cove, New York, scheduled for completion in July. Stephen G. Harrison, CSC president, formerly was managing partner of another center, Tarrytown House, that served such corporate clients as International Business Machines, American Telephone and Telegraph, Eastman Kodak, General Electric, General Foods, New York Central Railroad and Texas Oil Companyo more -

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NEW COLLEGE Page 3 Dr. Elmendorf said that CSC and New College propose an arrangement under which esc would manage and operate the East Campus as a continuing education center as an adjunct to the undergraduate activities of New College. New College would continue to hold title to the facility. The college for some time has been seeking to work out an arrangemant for converting the-East Campus to the continuing education use for which it was designed, Dr. Elmendorf said. One reason is that student enrollment will soon exceed the capacity of the Pei buildings. The college is developing plans, he said, for smaller, two-story residences on the bayfront campus. These would be designed specifically to house undergraduate students and to provide for the orderly growth and development of student community life. "We are faced with an immediate need to raise approxi mately $1.5 million to pay for construction of the new college buildings," said Dr. Elmendorf. "In addition to dormitory space for about 300 students, we will need a dining hall and some additional classrooms." He said that the campus that would be created on the bayfront would serve more appropriately the needs of undergraduate students, and would result in a facility more educationally and socially desirable than the present one, designed as it was for use by older persons. more -

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NEW COLLEGE -Page 4 He said that he will ask the trustees to permit the college to enter into a five-year management contract with esc, to begin immediately to draw plans for the new buildings, and to undertake to identify those in the community who would be willing to provide the needed capital funds. He said there may be as many as 15 new buildings constructed on the west campus during the coming year, and he expressed the hope that many of them would bear the names of local donors. They will be well-designed, attractive and permanent structures, he said. "I see this as another step toward relating New College to the Sarasota-Bradenton community," Dr. Elmendorf said. "The area continues to support and strengthen an undergraduate college of excellence and the college makes available a top management educational facility to enhance the community." II II