The University of Vermont has received the largest gift ever to a publicly-funded university in New England and has renamed its medical school in honor of the donor.
In April, $19.7 million in commercial property and cash was donated to the UVM School of Medicine by Dr. Robert Larner and his wife, Helen. The gift from the 1939 graduate of the university and 1942 graduate of its medical school brought the couple's total donations to more than $33 million, making them the most generous donors in school history.
The Larners have made another significant gift to UVM’s medical college, announced Friday by UVM officials. UVM President Tom Sullivan noted that over the past 11 months the Larners made two significant donations to advance medical education, first in October and another April. “I am pleased and proud to announce the next gift from the Larners. This gift when realized will be the largest private philanthropic commitment ever to a public university in New England. Through their estate they have committed with the current market value an additional $66 million dollars to enhance the support of our medical education and our medical students.”
The Larners’ contributions to the university over the past 30 years total $100 million. UVM Board of Trustees Chair David Daigle noted that in 1992 Dr. Larner received the highest alumni award given by the medical college. He was honored in 2013 with a Lifetime Achievement in Philanthropy in 2013, and awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree in 2014. “Our board of trustees could think of no better way to thank you for the support and encouragement you have provided. The University of Vermont Board of Trustees voted unanimously to name the University of Vermont College of Medicine in your honor. I am privileged to be the first to welcome you to the Robert Larner M.D. College of Medicine at the University of Vermont.”
University officials have called this and previous gifts from the Larners transformative. The college of medicine is changing to a more experiential method of teaching and Dean of the College of Medicine Rick Morin says the endowment allows the transition to the technologies and methodologies for such learning. “No other college in the nation has done this complete transformation to active learning. You have to build new classrooms, to do this team based learning, you have to develop really the techniques so that the faculty are working with students in groups and individually solving problems, figuring out diagnoses. That's a complete change in the way you teach. And it's based on the science. The data are just really clear. Two hundred twenty-five studies to zero showing the active learning is better and we're embracing it.”
Third year medical student Soraiya (sur-eye-ah) Thura (thur-ah) calls her medical education progressive, especially as it turns away from a traditional lecture model to hands-on learning. “One of the things that is super important for medical education I think is the technology and being able to keep up with the fast paced work place that is medicine today. Having things like clinical simulation labs where we practice with really helps us as medical students and really hones in our skills. So we need to have the materials in place, the faculty development in place, the training in place, all those different resources. And I feel that having this amazing gift is going to definitely help us move forward in breaking through with medical education.”
The latest donation is an endowed bequest and is expected to generate about $4 million annually to fund designated programs. According to UVM, this is the first time a medical school in the U.S. has been named in honor of an alumnus physician and donor.
The University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine is the seventh-oldest medical school in the country.
