St. Thomas class of 1952 alum Gene Frey donated $15 million to the university, which will help students afford St. Thomas’ two-year residency requirement.
To show gratitude, the university will rename Tommie East Hall to Mary and Gene Frey Hall at a dedication ceremony on May 11, 2022.
“(Frey) continues to be a friend to the university,” Vice President of Student Affairs Karen Lange said. “He is honestly one of the nicest men you could possibly meet, and he just cares deeply about St. Thomas and wants students to have a great St. Thomas experience.”
Retired CEO and chairman of Waldorf Corp., Frey is a member of St. Thomas’ board of trustees and has been an influential donor for many years.
The Frey Foundation, established in 1985 by Gene and his late wife Mary to formalize their family tradition of giving, is a reflection of the Frey family’s long-standing commitment to the St. Thomas community.
The Frey Science and Engineering Center, the O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library and the Frey Moot Courtroom in the School of Law already honor contributions from the Frey Foundation.
Recently, the Frey Foundation has focused on assistance in areas such as housing for those in need, education for classrooms K-12 and health and human services.
A few years ago when the university discussed changing their requirements for housing to being both first and second-year students, it raised concerns if students would be able to afford to live on campus.
“We started to get concerned about students that may not be able to afford to live on campus both years. So, at that time, the university made a commitment to be able to find some donors that would help with scholarships specifically for room and board,” Lange said.
The discussion of this search started around the months of December and January.
“Dr. Sullivan had the opportunity to talk to Gene about these room and board scholarships, as he had been a previous donor, and he was really excited about it,” Lange said, “He felt like that was so important for students to have that on-campus experience, and didn’t want anyone who couldn’t afford to live on campus not have to.”
Gene Frey was then announced as the donor to the community in February.
While the university has tried to publicize its two-year residency requirement, some students were still unaware that they would have to stay on campus after their first year.
“I think that students were kind of surprised when they found out just because they didn’t know when they moved in here for their first year that they were also going to do a second year,” Senior and Tommie East Resident Adviser Anna Trucke said.
For sophomore students, the university will be adding in a second-year experience course similar to the required course for first-year students.
“A lot of students are already connected, but we want to give them that kind of gradual independence,” Lange said about the course.
In addition, this gives students the ability to take time to learn who they connect with and figure out future housing plans.
“I think that living on campus has a lot of benefits to freshmen and sophomores, so I just hope that it gives people an opportunity to connect with each other and meet new people,” Trucke said.
Annabelle Wiskus can be reached at wisk9881@stthomas.edu.