{"id":26955,"date":"2023-08-08T15:30:53","date_gmt":"2023-08-08T19:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=26955"},"modified":"2024-07-25T15:39:48","modified_gmt":"2024-07-25T19:39:48","slug":"shis-1-million-gift-builds-on-a-legacy-of-sustainability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/shis-1-million-gift-builds-on-a-legacy-of-sustainability\/","title":{"rendered":"David Shi\u2019s $1 million gift builds on a legacy of sustainability"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than a decade after stepping down in 2010, Furman University President Emeritus David E. Shi \u201973<\/a> \u201ccouldn\u2019t be more pleased\u201d to see the school’s national acclaim<\/a> for the sustainability education, research and leadership initiatives he helped launch. With a $1 million pledge to The Shi Institute for Sustainable Communities<\/a>, he hopes to help preserve that legacy of sustainability for future generations.<\/p>\n

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Furman University President Emeritus David E. Shi \u201973<\/p><\/div>\n

During Shi\u2019s 16-year presidency, the university built Hipp Hall<\/a>, the first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-certified building in South Carolina and the first of eight now on campus. The university also adopted a sustainability plan<\/a> and became a charter signatory<\/a> of the American College and University Presidents\u2019 Climate Commitment.<\/p>\n

Promoting sustainability was \u201ca way of recognizing Furman\u2019s longstanding interest in its own environment,\u201d said Shi, recipient of a lifetime achievement award from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE<\/a>). \u201cThe beauty of the campus<\/a> is very intentional, going back to the early 1950s when the designers wanted to make one of the most beautiful campuses in the world. And sustainability, of course, is centered on preserving environmental quality.\u201d<\/p>\n

A \u2018truly transformational\u2019 gift<\/h3>\n
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Furman University President David E. Shi \u201973 in academic regalia during a 2009 event<\/p><\/div>\n

In 2008, Furman launched an academic hub to promote interdisciplinary research and teaching in support of sustainability on campus and in the greater community. Upon Shi\u2019s retirement in 2010, the Board of Trustees voted unanimously to christen the David E. Shi Center for Sustainability in recognition of his leadership.<\/p>\n

The center was a manifestation of what is now known as The Furman Advantage<\/a>, an educational framework that provides every student an individualized educational pathway and opportunities for high-impact learning experiences, said Shi. The intent was to create \u201ca learning laboratory for the larger academic philosophy that Furman has embraced over many decades to help our students learn by doing rather than just reading textbooks and listening to lectures,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In 2016, Shi\u2019s $500,000 pledge<\/a> created an endowed fund to support one of the center’s flagship initiatives, the Student Sustainability Fellowship<\/a> program, which provides opportunities on and off campus for engaged learning. Now, his $1 million gift to the endowment will help the institute \u2013 which was relaunched in 2020<\/a> as The Shi Institute for Sustainable Communities \u2013 ensure the future of the fellowships along with its other signature programs and services<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The endowment funds are intended to make Furman\u2019s flagship programs financially self-sustaining \u201cand not a perpetual burden on the university’s annual budget,\u201d said Shi, a renowned historian, author and lecturer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cDr. Shi\u2019s gift and continued support of the institute is invaluable to our efforts to advance sustainability on campus and in our communities,\u201d said Andrew Predmore<\/a>, executive director of The Shi Institute. \u201cIt is truly transformational, allowing us to do critical work in the areas of climate resilience<\/a> and biodiversity<\/a> protection, and ensuring that the solutions identified and implemented are equitable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Cascading benefits\u2019<\/h3>\n

Shi and Predmore agree that The Shi Institute, by stressing community engagement with the pressing issue of sustainability, directly advances Furman\u2019s mission<\/a> of guiding students toward lives of meaning and consequence.<\/p>\n

\u201cA series of cascading benefits occur when we build wider bridges between Furman and the community and find creative, constructive and fulfilling ways for our students and faculty to connect with off-campus individuals and organizations,\u201d said Shi. \u201cIt enhances the quality of a Furman education and better positions a graduate to be competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDavid Shi\u2019s gift to our general endowment ensures that Furman\u2019s leadership in sustainability will be lasting,\u201d Predmore said. \u201cIt also allows us to direct our energies at the most critical sustainability challenges of our day and involve students every step of the way. Our staff, our student fellows, faculty affiliates and broader Shi Institute network are thankful for this gift and all the impactful work it enables.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shi\u2019s gift comes during Clearly Furman<\/a>, the university\u2019s largest comprehensive campaign to date, which aims to raise $426 million by Furman’s bicentennial in 2026. For Shi, who led Furman during a previous campaign<\/a>, the role of donor is \u201cmuch more fun\u201d than the job of appealing to others for gifts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is by no means my final donation to Furman,\u201d he said, \u201cand I hope that is true for all of Furman\u2019s alumni and friends.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Emeritus David Shi was there at the beginning of school\u2019s sustainability efforts, and his gift to the endowment of The Shi Institute for Sustainable Communities will help ensure its future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":27346,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1922,37,18,9,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-clearly-furman","category-earth-environmental-and-sustainability-sciences","category-shi-institute-for-sustainable-communities","category-sustainability","category-top-stories"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26955"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33370,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26955\/revisions\/33370"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}