Index of University Press Releases

Oct. 4, 2007

Wesleyan contemplates next big campus project
Ross Dolan - The Daily Republic

Laura Wehde/Republic - Vice President for Institutional Advancement Greg Christy stands in the Christen Family Wellness Center’s gymnasium Wednesday. Just a year removed from the completion of the George and Eleanor McGovern Center for Leadership and Public Service, Christy says DWU already is planning its next capital projects: an 80,000- to 100,000-square-foot expansion of the school’s wellness center on the southeast edge of the campus and a renovation of the school’s former library that will create more lab space.

Although Dakota Wesleyan University has completed two major projects with a combined worth of more than $11 million—- since 2004, the well of generosity is far from dry, according to Greg Christy, vice president for institutional advancement at Dakota Wesleyan University.

For a school that hopes to raise another $14 million to $16 million to expand its athletic and laboratory facilities, that’s good news.

“Nationally, giving is at an all-time high and you’re certainly seeing more mega-gifts. Each year, more is being given than the year before and that’s certainly been the situation in our case,” said Christy, who has been in charge of DWU fundraising efforts for more than 12 years.

Just a year removed from the completion of the George and Eleanor McGovern Library and Center for Leadership and Public Service, Christy says DWU already is planning its next capital projects: a 75,000 to 80,000-square-foot expansion of the school’s wellness center on the southeast edge of the campus and a renovation of the school’s former library that will create more lab space.

Expansion and major fundraising at private colleges is in the news lately. The dedication of Wesleyan’s McGovern library project last year brought in scores of dignitaries, including former President Bill Clinton. The football team at the University of Sioux Falls this year moved into its new stadium and now Augustana College, also in Sioux Falls, is beginning work on a new football stadium on its campus.

Christy said those Sioux Falls projects do not create pangs of envy at DWU and also said that he doesn’t think the McGovern library project tapped out the school’s list of potential donors.

“I’m happy for those schools,” said Christy. “It’s great they’ve had the success they’ve had, but we really needed to finish the library project. Now we’re ready to turn our sights to our next projects.”

The DWU board of directors has endorsed the expansion of the school’s wellness center as a capital project. DWU has outgrown the Christen Family Wellness Center, which was built in 1985, said Christy.

Expansion of the wellness center with a field house addition will probably mean the launch of another $8 to $10 million capital project, Christy said. Fundraising has not officially begun, but Christy is confident the support will be there.

“In general, we’ve seen nothing but growth in the number of people who want to support the institution,” he said.

Last weekend, the school dedicated Jackson Plaza— a $750,000 landscaped area between the Sherman Center and Allen Hall that effectively completed the capital projects for the campus’s southeast quad. Other projects in that area included the $8.5 million McGovern library, and the $3 million Sherman Center with its connected Wagner Chapel. The latter two were finished in 2004.

All were completed without debt.

“We didn’t borrow a dime,” said Christy, who is hopeful that pattern can be repeated on the athletics and laboratory expansion projects.

Like Christy, Jon Henkes, vice president for development at Augustana College, is positive about potential giving. He believes there are philanthropic resources just waiting to be tapped. Taking a glass-is-half-full approach, Henkes says his college has alumni who haven’t given in the past and are ready to donate.

Baby boomers, who are coming into some cash, are a logical source.

“The generational transfer of wealth that was talked about is truly playing out. We’re no longer at the doorstep of that reality — we’ve entered the room,” Henkes said.

“It’s a great time to be a development officer,” said Henkes, a former lobbyist from Wisconsin, who has been at Augie for about a year.

He said the more fearful economic atmosphere of just a few years ago is being replaced with optimism. Augustana received two gifts of about $6 million each, Henkes said.

Henkes credits T. Denny Sanford’s “fabulous” $400 million gift to the former Sioux Valley Hospital for stimulating the recent spate of giving in South Dakota.

“We were in donor conversations with some folks who, at a smaller scale, were contemplating a gift to Augustana,” Henkes said. “They knew they were going to do it upon their deaths, but when the Sanford gift was made, the donors said to the college, ‘We’ve been encouraged by what Mr. Sanford did. We want to do this while we’re living.’”

The Sanford gift has also encouraged donors considering smaller gifts “to think about making a donation now,” he said.

Finding the right mix of project and donor is also important, believes Christy.

“Every project is different and every donor has different passions,” said Christy.

Translated, that means sports and science projects will probably hold the same fascination for some alumni that the McGovern library held for others.

“We will not be going back to just the same people,” Christy said.

For the proposed lab project, specialized laboratory planning firms are likely to be hired for their input, said Christy. That project will be about 18,000 to 20,000 square feet and will cost an estimated $6 million. Labs that are currently in Science Hall would be moved to the renovated space and in another project, the old labs will be converted to classrooms.

The only major debt still on the books at DWU is a 2003 student apartment addition. That $1.7 million project is being paid off by student rental fees.

The possible purchase of the L.B. Williams Elementary School by the Mitchell School District won’t be tied to the wellness/ athletic center expansion, said Christy.

The school district rents the school from Wesleyan and is considering purchasing the building from the college.

DWU has no current plans to build its own football stadium, said Christy, but DWU, like the Mitchell School District, is concerned about the deteriorating condition of Joe Quintal Field, where all of the town’s football games are played. A task force to study the stadium situation began meeting last week to consider options.

“Whatever decisions are made about the future of Joe Quintal, we would certainly be interested in looking at a joint project,” Christy said, noting that sharing of such sports facilities is common between small colleges and local school districts.

Mitchell Superintendent Joe Graves said an engineering report of the 65-year-old facility shows that it can be repaired. What those repairs will cost is unknown at this time, Graves said.