Philanthropy

In recognition of a $250,000 gift to the University at Buffalo Law School, one of the school's most-used lecture halls will become known as the Gordon and Gretchen Gross Classroom following dedication ceremonies on July 1.

University at Buffalo undergraduate Mindy Underhill straddles a ceiling beam, checking the joists in a home going up on Buffalo's East Side. Underhill, a junior speech and hearing science major from Marilla, N.Y., is one of a team of young women working on what they call "the girls' house." It is one of four new homes being built this year by Habitat for Humanity with major assistance from 36 UB students, and it is the 41st such house since 1990.

The Center for Literacy and Reading Instruction, affiliated with the University at Buffalo's Graduate School of Education and dedicated to helping children struggling with reading or writing, is accepting applications for the fall semester.

An alumnus of the University at Buffalo considered a visionary leader in the pharmaceutical industry is giving back once again to the institution that three decades ago provided a fellowship that helped him to earn a doctoral degree and begin his highly successful career.

Althea Luehrsen, executive director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership (CEL) in the University at Buffalo School of Management since 2001, has been named assistant vice president of corporate and foundation relations at the university.

The University at Buffalo has established the Institute for Jewish Thought, Heritage and Culture, a multidisciplinary research and academic degree-granting center that will focus scholarship on the critical role that Judaism has played in the development and communication of Western thought.

Oliver P. "O.P." Jones, M.D., the widely beloved professor who inspired awe and sometimes trepidation in generations of anatomy students at the University at Buffalo, will be remembered in a lectureship created in his honor through the generosity of a former student and his spouse.

The Department of Family Medicine in the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences has received the largest gift in its 38-year history. The $500,000 gift from the Rev. and Mrs. Brendan Griswold will provide funding for UB faculty to conduct primary-care research in health disparities.

A $500,000 gift from Greatbatch, Inc. to the University at Buffalo School of Engineering and Applied Sciences will support scientific work through the Greatbatch Professorship in Power Sources Research in the departments of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Electrical Engineering.

The Center for the Arts at the University at Buffalo has been awarded a $287,182 grant by the John R. Oishei Foundation to establish a program that will bring the performing arts and artists into health-care settings to enhance the healing environment for patients and caregivers in Western New York.