Judson College recently received a $1 million gift from the Harrison Family Foundation of Tuscaloosa. The gift supports Campaign Judson: Educational Excellence for Women and honors the Harrison family of Perry County — specifically the memory of James I. Harrison Sr., who was born and raised there.
The gift will create The Harrison Center for Academic Excellence, which will be housed in the renovated Jewett Hall, the educational and administrative hub of Judson’s campus in Marion. The building’s name will remain Jewett Hall, however.
The center will contain three of the five academic divisions of the college (education, humanities and social sciences) and 10 of the 19 majors offered by the college: business, elementary education, secondary education, criminal justice, religious studies, English, management information systems, ministry studies, foreign language and psychology.
Architectural studies indicate the renovation and construction inside Jewett Hall will be more effective and efficient for the college than the construction of a new building. This project will transform a dated complex into the foremost academic space on the campus and among the finest in the state.
The Harrison Center for Academic Excellence will provide large multipurpose laboratories for specialized training in areas such as reading and writing instruction; the creation of a worldwide classroom by the incorporation of interactive communication using Internet access and video conferencing with master teachers in their classroom settings; a dedicated “wet lab” area for demonstrating elementary science and chemistry experiments; opportunities for students to learn how to utilize the multimedia learning equipment they will encounter in actual schools such as CD-ROMs, lasers and interactive television screens; the facilities necessary to increase the scope of in-service seminars while improving services offered to area schools and teachers; provide opportunities to strengthen involvement in the Reading Initiative program and to become a literacy demonstration site for the Perry County area.
The center will also offer a human development laboratory that will provide space needed for psychology students to gain valuable, one-on-one experience in the areas of testing, counseling and observation. Students will have the opportunity to learn how to conduct counseling sessions while being observed by fellow students and professors.
Students will have access to a language laboratory that will have the ability to teleconference language instruction from other universities and an interactive classroom where foreign-language students can practice and write in their language interactively while conducting foreign language labs via computer programs.
“The Harrison family has been an integral part of the Marion community and Judson College,” said David E. Potts, president of Judson, as he announced the gift. “Jim Harrison’s decision to provide this extraordinary gift and academic improvements allows the board of trustees to place the keystone on a decade-long project to improve all academic space and technology on this 162-year-old campus.”
Roy Barnett, vice-chairman of the board of trustees and a cousin of Jim Harrison, said, “I am so proud of Jimmy. He has wanted to do something to honor the memory of his family in the community of Marion, and the creation of the center will allow him to accomplish his goal.
“Jimmy recognizes the success he and his father achieved is due in part to the love and encouragement their family has shown them through the years,” Barnett said. “The Harrison family roots in Marion date back to the early 1800s, and this gift will assure the Harrison family name will continue to be a part of the community for generations to come.”
Although the Harrison Center will be dedicated to the memory of Jim Harrison’s father, the $1 million gift is also given in memory of James Harrison Sr.’s sisters, Emma Lou Harrison Barnett and Marguerite Harrison Richardson, and in honor of his brothers, Aubrey Bomar Harrison and Charles Leslie Harrison.
Jim Harrison served as chairman of the board for Harco Drug Incorporated until 1997, and currently serves as chairman of Carport, Inc. (JC)
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