Challenge Grant From The Kresge Foundation Supports Smeal College Building Construction
The Kresge Foundation has pledged $1 million to support construction of a new building for Penn State’s Smeal College of Business, which will be the largest academic facility at the University when completed in summer 2005.
Challenge Grant From The Kresge Foundation Supports Smeal College Building Construction
UNIVERSITY PARK, PA (June 28, 2004) – The Kresge Foundation has pledged $1 million to support construction of a new building for Penn State’s Smeal College of Business, which will be the largest academic facility at the University when completed in summer 2005. As a challenge grant, the Kresge funds will be made available when the college raises $28 million of its original $29 million private fundraising goal.
“The Kresge Foundation has long been an important sponsor of the construction of educational facilities with the goal of changing lives through improved learning,” said Penn State President Graham B. Spanier. “For the Smeal College of Business, this new building will do just that, creating a learning environment for business leaders of the 21st century."
To date, friends, alumni, and other supporters have committed $22 million for the construction project, which broke ground in October 2003 near the northeast corner of the University Park campus. Penn State's Board of Trustees officially approved the project in March 2003, committing $39 million through the University's capital improvement funds.
“This challenge grant from The Kresge Foundation will help build momentum in the finishing stretch of the drive to complete the college’s fundraising goal by the end of 2005,” said Judy Olian, dean of the Smeal College. “Already, we have received tremendous support, and we hope that each of our more than 60,000 alumni around the world will consider contributing to a cause that will help propel Smeal forward in its journey of excellence.”
Designed by world-renowned Robert A.M. Stern Architects, the building will feature 210,000 square feet of space. It will include 21 undergraduate and MBA classrooms, six research and teaching laboratories, 10 recruiter interview rooms, a caf�, an auditorium, an atrium capable of seating 400, an outdoor plaza, conference rooms, undergraduate and MBA commons, and numerous other amenities.
Through its Bricks and Mortar Program, The Kresge Foundation offers challenge grants to help nonprofit organizations and educational institutions pay for construction, renovation, equipment, or land purchase costs. Additionally, The Kresge Foundation Science Initiative helps organizations purchase scientific equipment and raise endowment funds for future maintenance and replacement, and The Kresge Foundation HBCU Initiative helps develop fundraising capacity at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. The Foundation was created in 1924 by Sebastian S. Kresge “to promote the well-being of mankind.”
For more on the Smeal College’s new building and to track construction progress via live Web cams, visit http://www.smeal.psu.edu/building/webcams.
REPORTERS & EDITORS: For more information, please contact Wyatt DuBois in the Smeal College of Business Media Relations Office at 814-863-3798 or wed112@psu.edu.
Penn State's Smeal College of Business offers highly ranked undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA, Ph.D., and executive education opportunities to more than 5,500 students at all levels. Featuring academic departments of accounting, finance, marketing, insurance and real estate, management, and supply chain and information systems, the college is also home to major research centers such as the Center for Supply Chain Research, the Institute for the Study of Business Markets, the Center for Digital Transformation, the Farrell Center for Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the Center for Global Business Studies, and the Center for the Management of Technological and Organizational Change.
