News and Progress

MU College of Education receives $2 million to create innovative center, endowed dean's chair

Jan. 27, 2004

Harold and Joanne Hook. Photo by Publications and Alumni Communication

The University of Missouri-Columbia announced today the largest gift ever bestowed upon the College of Education. The $2 million gift, made by Harold and Joanne Hook, establishes the first endowed dean's chair in the history of MU along with a new center that will further position the college as an innovator in fostering cutting edge approaches for Missouri public schools.

“It's a real statement and vote of confidence from Harold and Joanne about what we're doing here in the college in helping the educational enterprise transform its focus from maintaining existing order to creating a culture focused solely on improving student performance,” said Richard Andrews, dean of the College of Education.

The first component of the gift is $1.1 million to establish the Joanne Hook Dean's Chair in Educational Renewal. This represents the first endowed dean's chair in the history of MU, and places the University among just a handful of public comprehensive universities in the nation that have endowed deanships. The chair will provide the energizing force to bring together all crucial personnel (teachers, leaders, school psychologists and others) to improve student performance. Andrews will serve as the first Chair.

Andrews has made the college a national leader in educational renewal, a concept that places an emphasis on improving the way colleges of education educate and develop teachers, who then go out and create better learning environments for children.

To help further this focus, the second component of the gift is $900,000 to establish the Hook Center for Educational Leadership and District Renewal. One of the goals of the center will be to develop assessment tools based on examples in management systems such as “Model-Netics,” which was created by Hook and responsible for helping revive the ailing Houston public school system in Houston, Texas.

“The center allows our department to focus on preparation of leaders for schools,” Andrews said. “It will be important because these ideas were just now beginning to spread into the educational enterprise. There is a wealth of information that suggests administrators aren't introduced to this type of thinking through their formal education.”

Harold Hook, BS BA, '53, M Acc, '54, founder and president of Main Event Management, a management consulting firm, is a recognized leader in innovative management techniques. His wife, Joanne, earned her Bachelor of Science degree in education from MU in 1955.