Driving Innovation in Education

The Friday Institute on Centennial Campus works to advance innovation in teaching, learning and leadership.

In the seven years since the Achieve! campaign began, the NC State campus has undergone a quiet – well, not always quiet – transformation. As donors opened their hearts to NC State, the university put their gifts to work, building and renovating facilities across campus to spur research, support the arts and athletics, enhance learning, and serve families and communities.

The William and Ida Friday Institute for Educational Innovation is a perfect example. This 33,000-square-foot facility on Centennial Campus works to advance education through innovation in teaching, learning, and leadership. The institute focuses on innovations that will help prepare all students, from preschool through college, to live and work successfully in the 21st century.

Launched with an anonymous $5 million donation in 2001, the Friday Institute opened its doors in 2005 and now supports the work of more than two-dozen researchers in the College of Education and the College of Engineering.

Achieve! donors helped underwrite the renovation of the east wing of the D.H. Hill Library, turning a crowded and outdated space into an expansive new Learning Commons. This 14,000-square-foot section is now open to students 24 hours a day and features the latest educational technology tools, including computers, LCD monitors, digital datasets, research materials and a full suite of software programs. Students can even borrow laptops, digital cameras, camcorders, and mp3 players from the lending desk.

Ruby McSwain, known to many as "Miss Ruby," is a longtime supporter of the JC Raulston Arboretum.

The JC Raulston Arboretum boasts several new facilities, including the 6,000-square-foot Ruby C. McSwain Education Center, made possible by McSwain's $1.2 million contribution, and the Bobby Wilder Visitor Center, named in honor of Wilder's 1,000-plus hours of volunteer service and deferred endowment gifts totaling more than $500,000.

Alumni have a stately new home on Centennial Campus thanks to a $5 million naming gift from Dorothy Dent Park of Ithaca, N.Y. The Dorothy and Roy Park Alumni Center now sits atop a bluff on the southern shore of Lake Raleigh, providing a gathering spot for reunions, post-game receptions, and university-related seminars.

Donors gave more than $136 million for athletic facilities, including the new Wendell H. Murphy Football Center and C. Richard Vaughn Towers at Carter-Finley Stadium, and the new J.W. Isenhour Tennis Center. The renovation of Doak Field at Dail Park was also supported by Achieve campaign donors.

Even more changes are coming to campus in the next few years as NC State completes construction of a number of significant new building projects.

The Randall B. Terry, Jr. Companion Animal Veterinary Medical Center is made possible by the largest single gift ever given to NC State.

The 110,000-square-foot Randall B. Terry, Jr. Companion Animal Veterinary Medical Center is scheduled to open in 2010, providing cutting-edge imaging technologies, advanced neurology and cardiac care, cancer treatment capabilities, an internal medicine department, and surgery facilities. The center was made possible by a $20 million pledge – the largest single gift ever given to NC State – by the Randall B. Terry, Jr. Charitable Foundation.

The new Arnold Palmer-designed golf course is scheduled to open on Centennial Campus next spring. The Lonnie Poole Golf Course will not only benefit the university's golf team, it will serve as an ongoing research site for NC State's top-ranked turf grass program as well as a living laboratory for its nationally recognized PGA Professional Golf Management program. The course was made possible by a $3 million lead gift from Lonnie and Carol Lynn Poole.

Also helping the 18-hole, 7,210-yard, par-71 public course become reality are Jeffrey and Dianna Goodman's $800,000 gift, more than $500,000 worth of in-kind grading equipment from Greg Poole, III and a $250,000 gift by BASF to name the maintenance facility.

The campus arts community anticipates completion of a $16.5 million renovation of the 83-year-old Frank Thompson Building, which is being transformed into the crown jewel of ARTS NC State.

The Achieve campaign supports the renovation of the 83-year-old Frank Thompson Building.

The Titmus Foundation of Sutherland, Va,, helped jumpstart the renovation fundraising campaign with a $500,000 donation. In honor of their generosity, the new 196-seat main theatre will bear the family's name.

The new mathematics building project was originally part of the state's 2000 Higher Education Bond Referendum, which called for the renovation of Harrelson Hall. Once it was determined that constructing a new facility for the departments of Mathematics and Statistics was a better option, SAS – specifically company co-founders and longtime NC State supporters James Goodnight and John Sall – stepped forward with a significant gift that made the project possible.

The result is a cutting-edge teaching and research facility that will be a showpiece not just for the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences – but also for the entire university.

Link

• Achieve Campaign Web Site