The University of Haifa campus. Photo: Zvi Roger – Haifa Municipality.

JNS.org –  The University of Haifa unveiled its new Lorry I. Lokey City Campus, which will comprise at least four buildings located throughout the Port of Haifa and the city’s downtown area.

An opening ceremony took place on Oct. 24 at the university’s newly acquired Dylan Tauber Educational Complex.

The building’s facade is comprised of digitally printed glass depicting Israeli cultural heroes, underscoring the facility’s role as an educational hub. The complex, along with the Palmer Street building, allocated by Haifa City Council, will house the new University of Haifa School for Data Science, Israel’s first of its kind. It will consist of three departments: computer science, information systems and statistics.

“Our campus will attract thousands of students who will be an integral part of the unique climate of downtown Haifa, which merges academia and research, biomedical high-tech and a vibrant nightlife,” said Professor Ron Robin, president of the university. “At the end of this process, we will be a better research university—one that gives its graduates far more opportunities than any other university in Israel. We will be integral to the urban fabric of Haifa and the entire north.”

The new city campus, funded by a $10 million gift from American philanthropist and Business Wire founder Lorry I. Lokey, is a key manifestation of University of Haifa’s unique “multiversity” model: an institution with locations around Haifa and throughout northern Israel, easing access for students and adding vitality to a diverse city and region.

Of the developments, Israel’s Minister of Education Naftali Bennett said: “This is a step everyone will benefit from, both the students who will enjoy access to the campus, and the area where the young population will breathe new and vibrant life. The combination of quality academia and contribution to society and the State of Israel is the right formula.”

In addition to the city campus, the university has launched the construction of the Helmsley Health Discovery Tower in partnership with Rambam Healthcare Campus, and the laboratories of the University’s School of Marine Sciences are already operating from the Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research building.

The university also continues its advanced talks with the WIZO Academic Center, turning it into a design faculty in the German Colony.