The Harry A. and Margaret D. Towsley Foundation of Midland has awarded Hope College a $750,000 grant for the renovation and expansion of the college's science center.
The Harry A. and Margaret D. Towsley Foundation of Midland has awarded Hope College a $750,000 grant for the renovation and expansion of the college's science center.
The project is part of the college's $85 million
"Legacies: A Vision of Hope" capital campaign, which the
college announced in October.
"The Towsley gift is a great encouragement at a
particularly important time in the life of the campaign,"
said Dr. James E. Bultman, president of Hope College. "Our
goal is to break ground in the spring of 2001, and so we
need major commitments that will allow us to do this without
placing the college in jeopardy with an undertaking of this
magnitude."
The $36 million science center project will double
the current Peale Science Center building, expanded to the
west to include new classrooms, laboratories, and office and
storage space. Peale Science Center, which is more than 25
years old, will be updated to better meet contemporary
teaching and research needs.
The expanded building will continue to house the
departments of biology, chemistry, biochemistry, the
geological and environmental sciences, and psychology, with
the department of nursing moving in from its cottage
headquarters on 14th Street. The design will complement the
college's on-going emphasis on collaborative student-faculty
research as a teaching model, with the addition of
interdisciplinary classroom space reflecting the way that
science disciplines increasingly inter-relate.
The Harry A. and Margaret D. Towsley Foundation
was established in 1959 by Margaret Dow Towsley with a gift
of Dow Chemical Company common stock and incorporated as a
private, charitable foundation. The foundation's goal, as
set forth in its Articles of Incorporation, is "to assist
religious, educational, charitable and scientific
organizations with their programs, and for the prevention of
cruelty to children."
Recent support of the college by the foundation
includes a $500,000 grant in 1994 for the Towsley Research
Scholars program at Hope, which supports the college's
faculty in blending their research interests and teaching.
Most recently, the award supported the research of Dr. J.
Jeffery Tyler, assistant professor of religion, during his
sabbatical last year.
"Legacies: A Vision of Hope" is organized around
three primary components. In addition to the science center
project, the campaign's emphases are increasing the
endowment, and addressing both short-term and long-term
facility and space needs for Hope.