ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Pew Charitable Trusts have granted $2 million toward the renovation of White Hall on the Cornell University Arts Quad.

Named after Andrew D. White, Cornell's first president, White Hall is a $12 million project now underway and slated for completion in the fall of 2002 and ready for occupancy in Spring 2003. It is the top capital funding priority for the College of Arts and Sciences and an important part of the university's initiative to enhance undergraduate education.

Crews went to work earlier this year gutting White Hall to prepare a new home for the departments of Government, Near Eastern Studies and History of Art and the Visual Studies Program. One of three original buildings on campus, the 135-year-old hall's interior will be completely redesigned, with an atrium in the center. Classrooms and offices will be located on the first floor and the basement will house seminar rooms and areas for graduate students. The upper three floors will house department offices. The Findley Gallery, now in the Department of History of Art in the south basement of Goldwin Smith Hall, will be moved to the fourth floor of White Hall. The current construction schedule calls for occupancy of the upper floors by August 2002.

The Pew Charitable Trusts support non-profit activities in the area of culture, education, the environment, health and human services, public policy and religion. Based in Philadelphia, the trusts committed more than $230 million to 175 nonprofit organizations in 2001.

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