Over the top: Manchester elated with $108 million success

By Jeri S. Kornegay
Manchester University in North Manchester, Ind., is concluding its $100 million Students First! campaign more than $8 million over goal and 18 months ahead of schedule, reports president Jo Young Switzer. The campaign is the largest in the history of the school, which is celebrating its 125th anniversary.

Manchester already has spent a third of the funds on a new Academic Center as well as classrooms and athletic training additions to the Physical Education and Recreation Center (PERC). With a significant $35 million gift from the Lilly Endowment, the Manchester University College of Pharmacy is well-established on a new Fort Wayne campus with a third class enrolled to embark on the four-year professional doctorate degree.

The $108.4 million also provides endowed scholarships and programs, resources for faculty development, and the Manchester Fund, which supports the operating budget. Two other construction projects wait in the wings now that funding is secured:

• A stand-alone tower will house the historic 10-bell Chime in a visible location on the North Manchester campus. The bells currently atop the Administration Building, where twice daily during the school year and for special occasions, students have played them, a 92-year tradition.

• A modern, multi-use facility will replace the aged Administration Building on a much smaller footprint with an accessible, greener facility.

About 68 percent of the $108.4 million is available for use, with the remainder in bequests and other planned giving, said Switzer. More than 50,000 gifts came from alumni, corporations such as the Dow Chemical Company that match alumni donors, Steel Dynamics, and other area corporations, foundations, and churches.

“Without my Manchester experience, I don’t believe I would have been as successful,” said Dave Haist, retired Do It Best Corp. chief operating officer. Haist, a 1973 graduate, and his wife Sandy, a 1974 graduate, co-chair the Students First! Campaign Cabinet. “It’s our responsibility to give back to those that have helped us.“

Every initiative of Students First! is living up to the campaign promise, Switzer said. “Our student learning spaces have improved dramatically. The endowment is larger. There are 53 new endowed funds for student scholarships and programs and more resources for faculty development.”

About $10 million arrived in the past month, pointedly celebrating the successful leadership of President Switzer, who retires July 1. She also has served Manchester as a student leader in the 1960s, alumna, professor, department chair, and vice president and dean for academic affairs.

Putting the campaign over the top is the largest alumni gift in the history of Manchester: $5.1 million from Herb Chinworth to name the new multi-use administration building in honor of his parents, Lockie and Augustus Chinworth of Warsaw, Ind. The Academic Center will be named in honor of former trustee Mike Jarvis, a 1968 graduate, and his wife Sandy of Franklin, Ind., in gratitude for their $5 million gift.

Manchester offers more than 60 areas of undergraduate study to almost 1,400 students in undergraduate, master’s degree, and professional pharmacy doctoral programs. Learn more at www.manchester.edu.

-- This release was provided by Jeri S. Kornegay, University Media Relations, Manchester University.

Source: 7/1/2014 Newsline