The largest alumni cash gift in the history of
Lawrence Technological University gives new legs to its plans for a $55 million complex — and accelerates the 81-year-old school's work on that project and efforts to attract more students to engineering and science careers.
About half of the $20 million gift, announced last week, will go toward building the revised
A. Alfred Taubman Engineering, Life Sciences and Architecture Complex with a newly added
Dr. Richard E. Marburger STEM Center.
The Southfield-based engineering, design and management university is working with its architect to see how the new center adjusts the building's layout and project cost, said university President Virinder Moudgil.
The $20 million gift comes from a donor who wishes to remain anonymous, the university said.
The proposed Marburger center expands on programs Lawrence Tech offers to attract middle and high school students into careers of science, technology, engineering and mathematics — commonly known as STEM. Marburger was the fourth president of Lawrence Tech, from 1977 to 1993.
And, Moudgil said, some of that STEM program expansion could begin as early as the winter semester — before any construction starts on the Taubman complex in 2014.
"A year from now, we'll put the shovel in the ground, and the first phase will be complete in 2015," Moudgil said. "But the beauty of this gift is, we don't have to wait for that. The process of the education can start almost right away. And as people learn and inquire about participating in it, we can start offering more instruction."
The new gift — all donors to the complex have been undisclosed since retail pioneer Taubman's original $11 million seed gift for it in 2011 — will go toward equipment and training space in robotics, software engineering, modeling, medical simulations, computer-assisted molecular modeling and other specialty equipment systems in the STEM center.
It also puts the university at between $30 million and $35 million raised for the complex. Hundreds of alumni have contributed, including about a dozen "significant" gifts since Taubman's first pledge, said Moudgil and Stephen Brown, vice president of university advancement.
A large portion of the new gift is earmarked to fund need-based scholarships at LTU and does not count toward the STEM center or cost of the building.
The university hopes to fund all three phases of construction through philanthropy, Brown said, but more than 55 percent of the major donor gifts to date are either estate or planned gifts. Shovels break ground next summer, and the new cash gift comes in installments over three years.
"If the groundbreaking were tomorrow, we'd have a problem. We still have work to do, but donor efforts are continuing," said Brown, who hopes to have at least $15 million in cash in hand from fundraising once construction starts.
The architect on the project is Thom Mayne, founder of the architectural and design firm
Morphosis, which has offices in New York City and Culver City, Calif.
Lawrence Tech is also $96 million along toward a new stretch goal of $100 million in its capital campaign, launched six years ago. In addition to the $55 million, 125,000-square-foot complex, the campaign is raising $35 million worth of endowments and scholarships, plus $10 million for academics and program innovation.
"We have many pending asks that we still need to close. The building cost is to be fully funded through philanthropy," Moudgil said. "And it will add some to our operating costs, but we expect that to be offset by a larger number of students. We are not going to raise tuition simply to have this development."
This spring, Lawrence Tech unveiled preliminary plans for the 125,000-square-foot STEM center. Moudgil said plans probably will see some changes over the next few months.
The STEM center was one of many proposals the development staff had solicited to alumni, and the latest donor took an interest in that during discussions this year, Brown said.
The university, which has 4,500 students, probably will add "a few hundred" more students after the first phase of construction wraps up in 2015 and eventually should grow to about 6,000 when the expansion is complete, Moudgil said.
The university last month also received an in-kind software grant from Plano, Texas-based
Siemens PLM Software, with an estimated $40 million commercial value, to aid in product design.
LTU’s Biggest Gift Ever, $20M, Will Create STEM Center
August 19, 2013 7:32 PM
Lawrence Technological University’s Southfield campus
SOUTHFIELD (WWJ) – Lawrence Technological University has received a $20 million gift to support its “Proud Heritage, Bold Future” capital campaign. It is the largest cash gift in the 4,500-student private university’s 81-year history.
The gift will be used to help fund the planned Richard E. Marburger STEM Center, which will support existing STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) programs at LTU and introduce new programs.
Marburger was the university’s fourth president from 1977 to 1993 and remains active on campus as he approaches his 50th anniversary of service to the university.
The donor, meanwhile, wishes to be anonymous.
“This is a transformational contribution that provides Lawrence Tech an unprecedented opportunity to advance several long-term goals at the same time,” said LTU President Virinder Moudgil. “The university has plans in place for exciting new educational initiatives and can now move ahead to enhance its leadership position in delivering cutting-edge education in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.”
Educational areas to be supported by the proposed Marburger STEM Center include robotics; software engineering; modeling, simulation and visualization; nanotechnology; medical simulations and informatics; computer-assisted molecular modeling; synthetic biology; “
green
” chemistry; and design thinking.
The Marburger STEM Center will also support academic programming in sustainable design, energy systems, architectural engineering, game art and game design, media communication, transportation and industrial design, digital humanities, digital marketing, and mathematics.
A new cross-disciplinary learning environment will increase training and instructional resources for the LTU faculty. New faculty members would lead the integration of technologies and experiential learning into curricula and research.
A significant portion of the gift will also fund need-based scholarships at LTU in order to improve accessibility to higher education.
The gift is also a major step toward reaching LTU’s capital campaign goal of $100 million, which has raised $76 million over the previous six years. The three main targets for the capital campaign are:
• Facilities and infrastructure, $55 million.
• Endowment and scholarships, $35 million.
• Academics and program innovation, $10 million.
“This remarkable gift allows Lawrence Tech to accelerate its progress in becoming a national leader in STEM education and improving the educational experiences and outcomes for our students,” Moudgil said. “Continuously improving the University’s quality and service is paramount. We are extremely grateful.”
This spring Lawrence Tech unveiled preliminary plans for the 125,000-square-foot A. Alfred Taubman Engineering, Life Sciences, and Architecture Complex that is expected to cost $55 million. Construction is expected to start next year and a portion of the gift will help provide new learning facilities in that building.
In July, LTU received the largest in-kind software grant in its history with a commercial value of $40 million from Siemens PLM Software. The in-kind grant gives LTU students access to the same technology that companies around the world use every day to develop innovative products that are engineered for manufacturability in a wide variety of industries including automotive, aerospace, defense, machinery, medical,
high-tech, electronics and many more.
Lawrence Technological University,
http://www.ltu.edu, is a private university founded in 1932 that offers more than 100 programs through the doctoral level in its Colleges of Architecture and Design,
Arts and Sciences, Engineering, and Management. PayScale lists Lawrence Tech among the nation’s top 7 percent of universities for return on undergraduate tuition investment, and highest in the Detroit metropolitan area. Lawrence Tech is also listed in the top tier of Midwestern universities by U.S. News and World Report and the Princeton Review. Activities on Lawrence Tech’s 102-acre campus include over 60 student clubs and organizations and a growing roster of NAIA varsity sports.
