Public Health School Gets $20 Million

The Harvard School of Public Health will announce today a $20 million gift to fund a new building and a new center for health and human rights.

The gift, from the Association Francois-Xavier Bagnoud, will create the Bagnoud building, the Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights and the Bagnoud endowed professorship of health and human rights.

Bagnoud was a Swiss helicopter pilot and relief worker who died in his mid-20s during a 1986 helicopter accident over the African desert. After his death, a Swiss charitable foundation was established in his name.

Harvey V. Fineberg '67, dean of the School of Public Health, said last night that the donation is "the most dramatic and momentous gift in the history of our school."

Fineberg said he hopes the gift will "serve as a symbol of the role of public health and the vision of the new public health."

The building, designed to rise five stories above ground and include 81,000 square feet of floor space, will relieve a current space crunch, Fineberg said. He said that while the school has experienced considerable growth in people and programs, it has not built any new structures since the early 1970s.

Fineberg also said that the building itself, projected to cost a total of $30 million and to be completedby the end of 1995, "can serve as a grand newentrance" to the school from the Huntington Avenueside.

The center for health and human rights,Fineberg said, will be the first of its kind.

"We believe that there are many importantconnections at the intersection of health andhuman rights," Fineberg said. He said health isitself a human right, and that wars anddiscrimination against women are human rightsconcerns that can affect public health.

The first Bagnoud professor of health and humanrights will be Jonathan M. Mann '69, now professorof epidemiology and international health. Mann,who has been active in the World HealthOrganization and the study of AIDS, "has been areal leader of the field defining human rights andhealth," Fineberg said.

Fineberg praised the late Bagnoud's mother,Albina duBoisrouvray, who is president of theSwiss foundation that made the gift. He called her"a very, very remarkable person," committed tohelping meet both the immediate needs of peopleand long-term research goals.

The School of Public Health's total expenses in1990-91 were about $69 million

The center for health and human rights,Fineberg said, will be the first of its kind.

"We believe that there are many importantconnections at the intersection of health andhuman rights," Fineberg said. He said health isitself a human right, and that wars anddiscrimination against women are human rightsconcerns that can affect public health.

The first Bagnoud professor of health and humanrights will be Jonathan M. Mann '69, now professorof epidemiology and international health. Mann,who has been active in the World HealthOrganization and the study of AIDS, "has been areal leader of the field defining human rights andhealth," Fineberg said.

Fineberg praised the late Bagnoud's mother,Albina duBoisrouvray, who is president of theSwiss foundation that made the gift. He called her"a very, very remarkable person," committed tohelping meet both the immediate needs of peopleand long-term research goals.

The School of Public Health's total expenses in1990-91 were about $69 million