Fox Gives $10 Million for Leadership Program

NOTING that “leadership comes not just from innate qualities but by nurturing and developing skills at the earliest possible opportunity,” Robert A. Fox C’52 has given $10 million to the College of Arts and Sciences to establish the Robert A. Fox Leadership Program.
    In addition to endowing chairs for three Fox Leadership Professors–the two named so far are Dr. Martin E. P. Seligman Gr’67, professor of psychology, and Dr. John DiIulio C/G’80, who joins Penn’s political-science department this month after serving as professor of politics and public affairs at Princeton University–the program will include a range of structured activities.
    The program will kick off this fall with a non-credit course, “Lessons in Leadership,” in which students will have a chance to interact with alumni leaders in a variety of fields. Beginning in the fall of 2000, the Fox Leadership Forum will allow incoming freshmen to participate in “interactive workshops with some of the most distinguished academics in the country” and others “known for their leadership acumen,” according to Dr. Richard R. Beeman, the professor of history who serves as dean of the College. Throughout the year there will also be meetings between small groups of College students and leaders from business, politics, academe, the arts and public service; an annual public lecture by a “world leader from politics or a variety of professions”; and changes to the curriculum, including a “major effort to enhance students’ speaking skills.”
    Dr. Samuel Preston, the Frederick J. Warren Professor of Demography who serves as dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, noted that the Fox program will offer students a “wonderful opportunity to develop skills that complement their liberal-arts education and prepare them for a lifetime of achievement.”
    Fox, a charter trustee of the University, is president and chairman of RAF Industries, a private investment company based in the Philadelphia suburb of Jenkintown.

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