Record Staff Report
Spalding University announced Sept. 5 it has reached a record fundraising amount of $30 million.
The amount represents the largest-ever capital fund-raising campaign, which began in 2014, a news release from the university said.
Funds collected have supported new construction projects, facility improvements and academic and scholarship programs “that broadly impact campus and student life,” the release said.
The $30.4 million raised to date is a record for a Spalding campaign, and it outpaces the original fundraising goals — $20 million by 2020, set by the university’s board of trustees when it voted to launch the campaign four years ago.
Spalding President Tori Murden McClure said the campaign has provided “our students and the community with more resources and services while making our campus greener and more beautiful.”
Some highlights of the $30 million capital campaign include:
– Nearly $11 million in student scholarships and fieldwork stipends have been or will be granted, including more than $4 million in federal grants for clinical psychology and social work students.
– More than $7 million has been donated or pledged in support of a greening initiative that has enhanced the 23-acre downtown campus. Completed projects include the Mother Catherine Spalding Square green space on West Breckenridge Street and the 2.2 Trager Park at the corner of South Second and West Kentucky streets.
Ongoing outdoor projects are the seven-acre athletic fields complex between S. Eighth and S. Ninth streets that will be home of Spalding’s NCAA Division III softball and soccer teams and the Contemplative Garden at Spalding University, which will be a meditation space at 828 S. Fourth Street that is designed to honor Trappist Monk Thomas Merton and His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
A $500,000 challenge grant went to the installation of playing surfaces at the fields complex, which is expected to begin this fall.
– Kosair Charities has contributed more than $1.2 million in support of the Kosair Charities Enabling Technologies of Kentuckiana (enTECH) assistive-technology resource center, the Auerbach School of Occupational Therapy and the Spalding School of Nursing.
– A $500,000 challenge grant from the James Graham Brown Foundation has helped raise $1 million to develop programs focused on restorative justice and restorative practices as well as Spalding’s Center for Behavorial Health.
– Nearly $1 million was raised to renovate the lower level of the Columbia Gym into a student fitness center and lounge.
– Other facilities that have undergone major improvements and modern updates are the Republic Bank Academic Center, which is the home of Spalding’s nursing and social work programs; the Spalding Library; the historic Tompkins-Buchanan-Rankin Mansion; and the Egan Leadership Center Lectorium.
