| Creative ways to encourage donor generosity in today's economy was the subject of a discussion of the Crowder College Foundation yesterday at their regularly scheduled meeting on the main campus in Neosho.
Leading the discussion was Deanna McClelland, president, pictured at right.
Of greatest concern is securing funding for the Crowder Health and Science project, a multi-story Leed silver certified building that will house classrooms and laboratories for the study of life science, physical science and nursing. It also will contain ed-tech computer labs, three student study areas and 16 faculty offices. Unfortunately, the total project cost of $5 million is currently $800,000 more than originally anticipated.
The project was initially jump started with a $2.18 million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to fund a tornado safe shelter. It is expected to provide safety for approximately 3,000 persons, representing the largest FEMA shelter in the state of Missouri and the only storm shelter in the nation to carry the LEED silver certification. Designed by Creative Ink Architects of Springfield, the shelter portion of the building will be composed of pre-cast concrete 30' x 10' walls hoisted in place by crane and welded together. Because of the FEMA funding, pre-construction--the moving and placement of utility lines--is underway.
However, $1,7000,000 is needed through private contributions to complete the project. While the board has suggested a donation of $750,000 would allow for building naming rights, they have become less than optimistic of finding a single donor.
How to work in today's economic conditions yet retain a sense of integrity was a question put to the board by McClelland. What was suggested in response was to look at the possibility of combining donors and using hyphenated names in the naming process. This possible method would include handling donations of $120,000 for the major lab, $75,000 for seven other places including smaller labs, $20,000 for classrooms and $10,000 for offices.
The encouragement of planned giving or spreading a donation out over five years was suggested by Jim Armstrong, committee chair. This would necessitate the use of the college's cash reserves as an initial funding source and temporary fix.
The future of Crowder College
"We've grown very rapidly in the last few years," commented Alan Marble, Crowder president. "Four-year colleges are talking about shrinking student populations because of state funding cuts in order to stabilize tuition. This means an increase in community college enrollment."
"Crowder has open enrollment," Marble further said. "We need room for these students."
About 265 students currently are living in dorms originally planned for a population of 172, Marble said. He suggested the need to plan for more dorm space. As to why apartments nearby wouldn't fill in the gap, Marble said that parents have told him that they prefer a policy in which 18-year-old students be required to live on campus with a curfew.
Other funding needs include the expansion of McDonald and Webb City campuses that are growing as rapidly as the main campus. The cramped Webb City campus, for instance, has five times more students than originally were anticipated, Marble said.
The donation of jurors' pay was a funding method initiated with a small donation from McDonald Countians. With approval from the circuit court the jurors' remuneration of $18 a day, 20-cents a mile was earmarked for the college. How to encourage the same donation from jurors from the other counties that Crowder serves was discussed.
Presidential Gala proposed
Executive committee member Eve Adams proposed an invitation only party to build a network of support. It could be fashioned after "Presidential Partners" that she said was starting up at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College. She assumed that the Friends of Crowder College committee would assist in getting the gala off the ground.
The next foundation meeting is scheduled for February 8, 2010.
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