EDITOR’S NOTE: A photo of Rooks and Estess is available on
the Web at
http://www.uh.edu/media/nr/2004/01jan/012204lbexp.html
$20 MILLION GOAL SURPASSED
FOR EXPANSION, RENOVATION OF
UH’S M. D. ANDERSON LIBRARY AND HONORS COLLEGE
HOUSTON, Feb. 9, 2004 – The $20 million fundraising goal
set for a major expansion and renovation of the University of Houston’s
M.D. Anderson Library and The Honors College has been met and surpassed,
thanks to more than 4,200 donors who helped the university earn
its first challenge grant from The Kresge Foundation.
The $20 million in private gifts, along with $25 million from the
university, will finance the library’s $45 million building
project, which is scheduled to be finished in October.
“It is a realization of a dream for those of us who have
been at the library and the university for many years,” said
Dana Rooks, dean of libraries. “We have planned for this building
since 1983, which was the first time the library staff started looking
at future space needs. So, 20 years later, the university is building
a library that will be transformational for the campus and, I think,
it also will be a jewel in the crown for the Houston community.”
The new wing of the building, which will provide nearly 50 percent
more space for the university’s main library, will allow the
current collection of 1.6 million volumes to increase to 2.4 million.
The new wing will also house The Honors College, which will be located
on the second floor.
Rooks received the good news that the project’s fundraising
goal had been met before the end of the year. It was a requirement
the university had to meet in order to qualify for a $500,000 challenge
grant from The Kresge Foundation.
“We were quite pleased to be accepted for the challenge grant,
and, of course, even more so to have achieved the goal,” she
said.
Rooks attributes the campaign’s success to the involvement
and support of many business and community leaders, including the
project’s capital campaign co-chairs Belle and Richard J.V.
Johnson.
“The community realized the importance of the library not
only to the university, but also to the entire city,” she
said.
The renovation and expansion project calls for the addition of
170,000 square feet of space, 1,800 new individual study spaces,
10 more group study rooms and 200 new electronic information workstations.
The library also is receiving a new facade, a new entrance and a
24-hour study lounge and café — offering vending facilities
and computer workstations.
Additionally, the project will provide The Honors College, which
was located in the library’s basement, with new and substantially
expanded quarters on the second floor.
“From its early days, The Honors College moved around from
one temporary site to another, none of which was particularly suitable,”
said Ted Estess, Honors College dean. “In 1977, the program
moved into the library’s basement, a 6,000-square-foot site.
That was all right when we had 300 students, but as the program
grew and evolved into a college in 1993, “we simply were not
able to accommodate our expanded enrollment of 1,200 or so students.”
Estess is eager to move into the college’s new space, which
will include 15 faculty offices, four seminar rooms and one classroom.
“This will be one of the finest, if not the finest, such
Honors College facility in the country,” Estess said.
“Beyond these very real services and advantages, there is
a strong symbolic value in all this, too. This is a clear declaration
by the university that it wholeheartedly supports undergraduate
education.”
Estess added that the new facility “will offer tremendous
benefits not only for the current generation of students in The
Honors College, but also for future students.”
The Kresge Foundation, an independent, private foundation based
in Michigan, was created in 1924 by Sebastian S. Kresge “to
promote the well-being of mankind.”
Kresge awarded the $500,000 challenge grant to UH as a catalyst
to help broaden and deepen the university’s base of private
financial support. UH’s capacity-building grant is one of
a limited number of grants The Kresge Foundation has provided in
support of building projects in the southern United States.
About the University of Houston
The University of Houston, Texas’ premier metropolitan
research and teaching institution, is home to more than 40 research
centers and institutes and sponsors more than 300 partnerships with
corporate, civic and governmental entities. UH, the most diverse
research university in the country, stands at the forefront of education,
research and service with more than 35,000 students.
For more information about UH visit the universitys Newsroom at www.uh.edu/admin/media/newsroom.
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