The IUP Council of Trustees on December 5, 2008, approved the naming of the Suites on Grant residence hall in honor of alumna Donna Putt for her six years of service, ending June 2006, on the Foundation for IUP board of directors.
A 1969 graduate, Putt served as president of the Foundation board for two years and vice president for one. Her tenure also included four terms on the development and nominating committees, three terms on the executive committee, and two terms on the residence hall project committee. She chaired the executive committee for two years and the development committee for one.
In its resolution, the trustees recognized Putt's leadership, time, and other contributions in the planning of the first phase of the Residential Revival student housing project, which included construction of Suites on Grant. This $270-million project, which involves replacing or renovating all university-owned housing, is a joint venture between the nonprofit Foundation, which owns the buildings, and IUP, which manages building operations.
Putt is the second alumna to have a Residential Revival facility named for her. The building formerly known as the Suites on Grant—Lower was named for trustee Susan Snell Delaney in March 2008.
In other business Friday, the trustees:
- Approved the naming of the Performing Arts Center's Green Room in honor of Jane Miller Banks, a 1956 graduate, in recognition of her financial commitment to the university. The center's construction, completed in early fall, involved extensive renovations of Fisher Auditorium and Waller Hall and a twenty-thousand-square-foot addition and grand lobby adjoining the two.
- Commended broadcaster Jack Benedict for his contributions to IUP and IUP athletics during the past forty years. Benedict has called more than four hundred football games—including two Division II national championship contests—and a thousand basketball games.
He is an Indiana County Sports Hall of Fame inductee, a five-time recipient of the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters Excellence in Broadcasting Award, and winner of the 1998 IUP Athletic Hall of Fame Bellringer Award and the 1995 George Heaslip Media Award, presented by Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference sports information directors. - Commended the IUP Golf Team and coach Fred Joseph for the team's Fall 2008 accomplishments, which included winning its second-straight PSAC championship, taking the conference title, and having five golfers finish in the PSAC tournament's top ten. The team will enter the Spring season in March seeking its thirteenth-straight trip to the National Collegiate Athletic Association East Region tournament.