By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Bowling Green State University has momentum in its quest to have facilities, whether a building or a room, named for donors.
On Friday, the university’s Board of Trustees approved the naming of five facilities, small and large.
President Mary Ellen Mazey credited Michael Kuhlin’s donations that resulted in the Michael and Sara Kuhlin Center with getting the ball rolling. Mazey said that will continue into next year.
Shea McGrew, vice president for University Advancement, said after the meeting that he expects to have some of the million dollar donors behind the planned renovation of Hanna Hall into a new home for the College of Business present when the trustees convene in February.
McGrew said that the naming of facilities approved Friday represented a total about $3.4 million in gifts.
Mazey said it is important to have the trustees not only approve the naming of facilities, but to also recognize the donors at their meetings.
All but one of the donors were present for the trustees meeting.
Stephen Harris, who with his wife, Deborah, provided the funds for a new robotics lab, died very recently. McGrew said he hoped Deborah Harris will be able to attend the February trustees meeting.
The Stephen and Deborah Harris RIXAN Robotics Laboratory will allow the university to go ahead with a degree in mechatronics, McGrew said. The lab is now under construction.
The patriarch of a family of “rink rats,” Scott Slater will have his contributions to the university recognized in the Slater Family Ice Arena.
Slater has long been a supporter of hockey at the university, providing crucial support when the program was threatened with discontinuation.
In addressing the board, he said education was valuable as are athletics “which build character.”
“When you have both of them you have a great chance to successful in work,” he said.
Slater said he hoped that the work funded by his donation will “give the old lady a new heart” and insure the arena will be viable for another 50 years.
Steve Krakoff, vice president for Capital Planning and Design, said the university is working with a design firm that specializes in ice arenas to determine what renovations the facility needs.
The university library’s Sound Recording Archives will be named for Bill Schurk, the librarian and archivist responsible for building up the internationally recognized collection.
Schurk said he knew as an undergraduate he wanted to return as a librarian. He said he was told about the new audio library in planned for Jerome Library, which was then under construction. As he was walking to class he looked up at the library on progress and decided this is where he wanted to be. “I’ve become engulfed in this university. This university has become part of my life.”
Schurk is retiring this month after 50 years of service to BGSU.
He was greeted by one of his many former student employees, David Levey, who chairs the board of trustees. Levey showed him his pay stub from his time at the library in 1969. He was paid $1.30 an hour.
Beside the pay, though, Levey said, he learned about work ethic from Schurk. The librarian was the first adult he met who loved his job.
Also recognized was Shayne Thomas donated the funds for the Angela Falter Thomas Lounge in the Education Building to honor her academic achievements on the their 25th wedding anniversary. Education, he told, the trustees is more lasting than silver.
Falter Thomas is a graduate of BGSU and a professor in the College of Education and Human Development.
Paul Agne’s education career also began a BGSU. He graduated in 1955. He taught in public education for 30 years in the state, as well as teaching and coaching at BGSU.
The Paul Agne Conference room is slated to be located in room 336 of the Education Building. That may change based on the renovation planned for that building.
The trustees approved spending $1.3 million on classroom improvements in the Education Building. That includes transforming eight traditional classrooms into seven active learning spaces, and redoing some office spaces and hallways “to create spaces for interaction,” said Sheri Stoll, the university’s chief financial officer.
She said the money will be “scraped together” from already appropriated classroom improvement funds.
The trustees agreed to another $1.5 million to demolish the Family and Consumer Sciences building and West Hall. The food and nutrition programs are now taught in Health and Human Services and Eppler.
The media and communications program has been relocated to the Kuhlin Center.
Stoll said that a memorial garden is planned for part of that site, but the funding is not in place, so it will remain as green space.
Trustee Betty Montgomery asked if that would preclude the future use of that space if more building is required.
Krakoff said “as we reduce the size of campus” the memorial garden was considered a fitting use for the space. It would consolidate some of the memorials to deceased faculty and students now spread around campus and honor the service of veterans.
“We don’t view that as a future building site,” he said.
The board also approved issuing bonds for $35 million to continue the capital improvement plan. The board granted flexibility in what kind of bonds are issued and when to take advantage of market conditions.
That money will be used to complete the renovations of Moseley and University halls and begin the renovation of Hanna Hall.
