Students, faculty, staff and alumni, along with President Ann Weaver Hart, Dean John Daly and Daniel H. Polett, chair of the Board of Trustees, gathered at the corner of Broad and Tioga streets on Nov. 9 to watch as a construction crew placed the last beam on the frame of Temple’s new Medical School building.

The beam, which bore signatures of hundreds of members of the Temple community, was painted white and adorned with an evergreen, signifying the school’s continued growth and prosperity.

The new building, the largest capital project in Temple’s history, is on track to be completed in May 2009, and has doubled in height over the past two months alone.

Upon completion, it will encompass 480,000 square feet, doubling the amount of space currently used by medical faculty, students and staff.

The new building will also feature 110,000 square feet of research space on six floors, allowing for the recruitment of new faculty, currently under way, and will accommodate an enlarged student body, which will expand in class size from 180 to 220 with the class of 2013.

To see the continued progression of the new Medical School, visit http://mdev.temple.edu/webcams/medcam.

Philanthropy also reaches new heights

As the School of Medicine building continues to grow, so do philanthropy efforts.

In just 10 years, donations from alumni and friends have grown from $3 million to $12.8 million per year.

In addition to the overall increase in total dollars donated annually, the number of alumni donors has increased from 22 percent to approximately 30 percent since 2002.

“Our alumni are increasingly proud of their medical alma mater and understand the importance of their contributions,” said John M. Daly, dean of the School of Medicine. “To this end, we are working more closely with alumni leadership to develop specific strategic goals to be achieved in large measure through philanthropy — goals designed to help move the institution to the next phase of its evolution.”

Funding for the new $160.4 million building includes $50 million from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, $50 million from a Temple University bond issue and $55 million from the School of Medicine, including philanthropy.