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Putting USF on the globe
A Times Editorial
Published May 21, 2005
Kiran Patel was born in Africa, educated in India, and he is intent on connecting the world to the University of South Florida. His extraordinary $18.5-million gift will enable USF to build a global solutions center that is aimed at drawing leaders from around the planet to discuss issues of common interest.
That center, to be named after the Tampa cardiologist, also cannot help but further establish USF as a university of academic distinction.
Patel and USF president Judy Genshaft have been exploring his ideas privately, even flying to Houston to visit the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University. At USF, his money will combine with state and private matches to produce a $62.5-million center with four pavilions to house scholars, a conference center, classrooms and a 500-seat auditorium.
Patel's vision, shared by Genshaft, is that the Tampa campus can become an international meeting place, an academic center that can research and share ideas about such issues as economic trade and world hunger.
"The world is shrinking and becoming global," Patel told a reporter. "So it's time to think global. . . . We want to be on the edge and ahead."
His generosity may help USF get there.
[Last modified May 21, 2005, 01:03:17]
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