BAUM
STUDENT CENTER
Opening its doors in Ronald Tutor Hall in 2005 to
great waves of enthusiasm by students, faculty and visitors, the Baum
Student Center became an immediate and popular hub. Dwight C. “Jim”
Baum, chairman of the Viterbi School Board of Councilors, whose father,
the late Dwight C. “Bill” Baum, first proposed the idea of a student
center, helped to fulfill the dream. The Baum family’s gift created a
student lounge that welcomes students to “come together to relax, to
socialize, to grab a bite, plug in their laptops and, most importantly,
become a community,” Jim Baum says.
Since
opening, the Baum Student Center has become a center of interactive
study, meeting and “hanging out” for students. It has made a
significant impact for engineering undergraduate students by providing
a comfortable environment in which to do some leisurely or last minute
studying or to meet for group projects.
Jim
Baum and his family truly understood the significant impact they could
make by making a gift toward facilities and infrastructure. “We have no
idea what is going to happen ten, twenty years down the road. That is
why it was so important to provide these labs and facilities, the
project areas and study rooms, for both the students, graduate students
and the faculty. It will help them to go where they have to go in the
future and make Viterbi an even more attractive destination,” says Jim.
