UR alumni couple donates $25M for student learning center

Carole and Marcus Weinstein, alumni of the University of Richmond, have donated $25 million — the second-largest single gift in the Richmond university’s history — to support a center focused on student learning, UR announced Wednesday.

The Carole and Marcus Weinstein Learning Center will be located in the Boatwright Memorial Library. The gift will enable the university to create a center that “co-locates, integrates and expands services that support academic achievements for students, including effective speaking, writing and peer tutoring,” as well as advanced quantitative support and other resources for students.

Marcus Weinstein, a 1949 UR graduate, is chairman of Weinstein Properties, a Henrico County-based real estate company that owns and manages more than 21,000 apartment units in Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. (The couple’s daughter, Allison Weinstein, is the company’s co-president and CEO. Both Allison and Carole Weinstein have served on UR’s board of trustees.)

“We are excited by the way the university’s Boatwright Library will accommodate the next generation of students,” Marcus and Carole Weinstein said in a statement. “We remember spending hours poring over the library’s card catalog to do further research for papers we were writing. The new learning center will use the library’s centralized space to offer cutting-edge practices and support new skills students need now and into the future.”

The Weinsteins have given to UR previously and their gifts have supported scholarships, faculty chair positions, international education, well being and chaplaincy programs, according to UR. They have also supported the creation of the Carole Weinstein International Center, the Weinstein Center for Recreation and Weinstein Hall.

“We are deeply grateful to the Weinsteins for their steadfast support,” University of Richmond President Kevin F. Hallock said in a statement. “They continually lead by example in showing the transformative power of philanthropy at UR.”

In January, the university awarded Marcus Weinstein the Paragon Medal, UR’s highest honor.