When the renovation of Oxford's four oldest residential facilities is completed, students will have air-conditioned rooms, computer laboratories and study halls in what is now known collectively as the Fleming L. Jolley Residential Center.
Fleming Jolley '43Ox '47M, a neurosurgeon and professor of surgery at the School of Medicine who retired in 1979, lived in Haygood and Pierce Halls while an Oxford student. His gift of land that funded the renovations also funded scholarships for second-year medical students and assisted the fund-raising effort for an alumni house.
"Students spend the majority of their time at college outside the classroom," said Oxford College Dean William Murdy. "Dr. Jolley's investment in the new living-learning center is an investment in the total educational experience of Oxford students."
Jolley also has contributed the gift of time. He is a new member of the Oxford College Board of Counselors, and he chaired his 50th reunion celebration in 1993. He also has been an active member of Oxford's Alumni Recruitment Network, a five-year-old program that asks alumni to correspond with prospective and accepted students about the value and rewards of an Oxford education.
Thousands of school children are being exposed to the wonders of Egyptian mummies, ancient American artwork and the culture and civilization of ancient Greece and Rome thanks to a grant to the Carlos Museum from the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund. Through new interactive multimedia stations (pictured here), visitors can view a CAT scan of one of the museum's mummies and actually see what organs have been removed. They also can touch and play a bat flute, hear the sound a Costa Rican jaguar vessel makes when it is rolled, and discover that the tiny spots on the vessel are actually little jaguars. Through three-dimensional computer animation, visitors can discover more and different information about objects displayed in the museum.
The Carlos Museum, which received a five-year, $1.5-million grant, was one of eight art museums nationally to receive grants totaling $10.7 million in the first year of the fund's Museum Collections Accessibility Initiative, a national program designed to help museums broaden their outreach to diverse and traditionally underserved populations.
The grant supports "Passport to the World," a permanent collection project designed to offer Atlanta-area children an engaging exploration of cultures from around the world. Each fall, families and children flock to the quadrangle to enjoy hands-on art activities, demonstrations, music, food and a variety of other events. This past fall, the theme of "A Greek Odyssey" allowed children to explore the culture, art and food of ancient Greece.