Kay Dillard, a prominent donor who has given millions of dollars to the university, has issued a challenge to MSU administrators.
She said she’ll give $2.5 million to pay off half the remaining balance the university owes on the Dillard College of Business Administration – but only if MSU can find a matching donation.
Dr. Howard Farrell, vice president of university advancement and public affairs, said administrators have already raised about $1 million to put toward the project.
This type of donation “deal” is becoming more commonplace in higher education, he said.
“You’re finding a lot of donors these days who are saying, ‘I’ll give you x amount of money if you can come up with x amount of money,’” Farrell said. “That’s pretty standard.”
He said it’s part of an effort on the part of donors to force administrators into more active fundraising. With this type of agreement, the university can’t just sit back on its haunches while private donors inundate it with funds.
Farrell said the $2.5 million will be raised with “new” donations, meaning it won’t come from donated money the university already has in its reserves. The university has already raised $951,000 from three private donors. Farrell said he anticipated being able to raise the other $1.5 million in three or four months.
Currently the university is using HEAF (Higher Education Assistance Funds) to make payments on the Dillard building debt. HEAF can only be used for specific projects, such as constructing an academic building.
Once the building is paid off, HEAF can be distributed elsewhere on campus, said President Dr. Jesse Rogers.
The state gives MSU about $4 million in HEAF every year. Rogers’ plan: to leverage the $4 million in HEAF and borrow against it.
“So if we can pay off that building with private money, we can generate somewhere between $12 and $15 million,” Rogers said. “We can spend this money on campus projects.”
He said he has plans for that money already. Some of his ideas are tearing down old buildings on the northwest corner of campus, building a new police station and adding classrooms to Ferguson Hall. The Bolin and McCoy buildings could use a facelift as well, he said.
Rogers said one of the university’s top priorities is to renovate the buildings which formerly made up Christ Academy. The structure MSU acquired in 2010 is located on the southwest corner of campus and offers almost 30,000 square feet of space.
“Those buildings are made very well,” Rogers said. “We just need to go in there and put a new roof on them and redesign the interior.”
Other projects, such as building a new $40 million library, will have to wait until something changes with the economy.
“I can’t see us getting to that until the economy improves pretty dramatically,” he said.
Some of the homes the university owns across Hampstead will also be torn down to make room for a new parking lot, Rogers said. Two of the homes will probably be kept.
“They’re not really worth re-doing,” he said. “We’re going to need commuter parking space more than we need those homes. We could put money into them and lease them, but the fact is that we need the land more.”
All these projects, however, will be put on the back burner until Dillard is paid off.
Farrell said he is optimistic about the situation. Although small donations to the MSU Annual Fund have dropped since the 2009-10 academic year by $48,678, big-dollar donations have not faltered.
