Sign In
Free Newsletter
Stevenson names new building for outgoing president
The new, 200,000-square-foot academic building unveiled at Stevenson University on Tuesday will bear the name of the school’s outgoing president.
The Kevin J. Manning Academic Center is located at the north end of Stevenson’s Owings Mills campus in a building that was once used for pharmaceutical manufacturing. The university has added two floors and about 30,000 square feet to the building since renovations began in August 2014, and the facility triples the amount of space available to the university’s schools of science and nursing and health professions, according to Stevenson.
Each of those schools, which were previously housed at the original Greenspring campus, has also received substantial gifts and new names, the university announced Tuesday.
The amount of the gifts have not being disclosed, but they are among the largest the institution has ever received, according to a spokesman.
Manning, who has led the school since 2000 and plans to step down in June, has overseen Stevenson’s transition from Villa Julie College to a multi-campus, career-oriented university with residence halls and NCAA Division III athletics.
Stevenson Board Chair James Stradtner said in a statement that Manning was a “visionary” and that in light of his many accomplishments, it was only fitting that the new, signature building be named after him.
The newly-christened Sandra R. Berman School of Nursing and Health Professions is named for a philanthropist who has served on the university’s Board of Trustees since 2013. She made the “naming gift” for the school with her husband, Malcolm.
“Health care and education have always been important to me,” Sandra R. Berman told The Daily Record on Tuesday. “The nurses I speak to that have graduated from Stevenson and have worked at the community hospitals [in the area] … they’re compassionate, they’re well-trained, and they’re outstanding nurses.”
When the opportunity arose, Berman said, she wanted to be able to attach her name to Stevenson.
The School of the Sciences has received a naming gift from the Beverly K. and Jerome M. Fine Foundation, and will now be known as the Beverly K. Fine School of the Sciences. The Fines’ late daughter was an adjunct professor at Villa Julie College, according to the university.
The donation was made possible by foundation trustees Louis Friedman, Jerome Fine’s former attorney, and his wife, Phyllis. Memorializing Beverly Fine through a school dedicated to preparing young people for the workforce reflected Fine’s concern for society and the foundation’s mission, Phyllis Friedman said in a news release.
Manning said in a statement that Tuesday was a “dual honor” for him as president — having the academic center named for him was humbling, and the generosity of the Bermans and the Fine Foundation were confirmation of the school’s decade-long goal of transforming into a university.
The school would not have reached this point without the dedication of its employees, friends, and supporters, Manning said.
The new academic center will also house classes and studios for Stevenson’s school of design and a third library.
Over the next few years, Stevenson plans to continue expanding its Owings Mills campus with an eight-story academic building and a parking garage that will allow existing lots to be converted into green space, Manning told The Daily Record earlier this year.
