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UK coach John Calipari, from right, joins with UK President Eli Capilouto in presenting a pair of personalized basketball jerseys to philanthropists Thomas and Jan Lewis.
UK coach John Calipari, from right, joins with UK President Eli Capilouto in presenting a pair of personalized basketball jerseys to philanthropists Thomas and Jan Lewis.
The University of Kentucky announced Thursday the largest single gift in the school’s history, $23 million that will build a dedicated honors college.
The extraordinarily large donation comes from the foundation run by Thomas W. Lewis, a 1971 UK graduate and Phoenix, Arizona-based home-builder. The Lewis Honors College will build on a national trend of smaller, focused schools within major universities that focus on student experience.
The gift’s size and importance could be measured by the company it drew to Thursday’s announcement, including UK President Eli Capilouto and even a quick visit from UK basketball coach John Calipari, who stopped in to deliver personalized jerseys to Lewis and his wife and foundation partner, Jan.
Capilouto praised the Lewises, noting it was not the first time the university and its students had benefited from their generosity.
“This gift builds on Tom’s legacy of meaningful stewardship,” he said. “There are scholarships he endowed years ago that support students from Fayette County and some of the most impoverished counties in southeastern Kentucky. Tom believes that his life was changed by support of a scholarship, and so too is he changing the lives of others."
Lewis, a 7th generation Kentuckian, said the gift is meant to honor his family’s past, his parents and his love of the university.
“Although it’s a big gift, I can’t remember too many decisions that were easier for me to make than this,” he said.
The plan is to build a separate facility, which Lewis said would have 20,000 square feet of class and office space, and have dedicated faculty. Capilouto said the plans for the college will go before the university senate this academic year.
Lewis said planning for the honors college began in earnest two years ago, but traced the idea to working with Barrett, a similar college at Arizona State University. Lewis and Capilouto both said the new college would help the public university compete with private alternatives.
“We began working with the people at Barrett four or five years ago, and we saw what this honors college could really do for a university,” Lewis said. “They created this unique special intimate honors college within a major university and they started offering all of these what I call wrap-around services, career counseling, special classes ... all kinds of job opportunities. What we saw was how this honor college really enhanced the brand of that university.”