The building, located on the corner of Stadhuisstraat and Sint Sebastiaanstraat in Middelburg, has recently been purchased by UCR and will be home to the college’s engineering department.
On choosing the name, UCR students, faculty and staff proposed a shortlist of possible names. In keeping with tradition – current UCR campus buildings are named after members of the Roosevelt family; Franklin, Eleanor, and Theodore – the name had to be connected with the Roosevelt family and honor the Roosevelt legacy, proportionate in stature and influence. True to UCR’s ethos of diversity and inclusion, female names were more favorably considered.
Following a community-wide vote, Anne (Anna Eleanor Roosevelt) was decided on as the most suitable name. Anne’s career has encompassed leadership positions in philanthropy, public policy, politics, the arts and higher education. In 2013, she was presented with the Queen’s Commissioner’s Medal of Merit of The Province of Zeeland in recognition of her work carrying forward the legacy and values of her grandparents.
On accepting the use of her name, Anne Roosevelt said:
“Engineering at University College Roosevelt is now to have a dedicated building which is to be named after me, a deep and appreciated honor. As our planet groans under the stress that we humans have imposed on it, we rely on the engineers to figure out how we can survive and thrive here! Ideally, engineering is a blend of technology and human rights – sublimely creative, delightfully inventive, ultimately necessary to humanity. But it can be used for good, or ill. That is the challenge I trust that our faculty, students and community will wrestle with and win for the common good, as long as my name is associated with this endeavor. I am humbly grateful!”
As a liberal arts and sciences college, engineering at UCR will be integrated with studies in the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. The thematic focus will be on questions of sustainability in the delta. With climate change and changes in our relation to water, energy, and food, our Zeeuwse Delta sees challenges that are not just of a local and focused, but of a global and cross-disciplinary nature.
In August 2020, the first students were accepted into the Engineering program. Renovations are in the final stages of completions, with the building to be formally opened in Spring 2021.
More about Anna Eleanor Roosevelt
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (known as Anne) recently retired as the Chief Executive Officer for Goodwill of Northern New England, an influential not-for-profit social enterprise that creates Jobs, delivers needed services for people with diverse challenges, and uses environmentally friendly products and processes. Currently, Anne chairs The Roosevelt Institute in New York. She serves on the Boards of the Maine Community Foundation, Maine Grains, INC., the Maine Community College System, and the Jim Browne Foundation; she is a Fellow at the Center for Corporate Citizenship at Boston College and is an Alternate Commissioner, Roosevelt Campobello International Park Commission.
Anne’s career has encompassed leadership positions in philanthropy, public policy, politics, the arts and higher education. In 2013, Anne was presented with the Queen’s Commissioner’s Medal of Merit of The Province of Zeeland in The Netherlands, in recognition of her work carrying forward the legacy and values of her grandparents through the annual joint presentation of the Four Freedoms Awards.
Anne was named after her grandmother, and both were called Nell as children. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Stanford University, and a Master of Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and several honorary doctorates.