PC to kick off campaign

PROVIDENCE COLLEGE (above) planned to kick off a $140 million comprehensive campaign Saturday night. / COURTESY PROVIDENCE COLLEGE
PROVIDENCE COLLEGE (above) planned to kick off a $140 million comprehensive campaign Saturday night. / COURTESY PROVIDENCE COLLEGE

PROVIDENCE – Providence College planned to kick off a $140 million comprehensive campaign Saturday night that is more than two-thirds complete, aiming to raise some $41 million in time for the school’s 100th anniversary in 2017.
College President Rev. Brian J. Shanley, Class of 1980, said the “quiet phase” of the campaign has already succeeded in raising $99 million.
The kickoff of the extended campaign, dubbed “Our Moment: the Next Century Campaign for Providence College,” was slated for 7 p.m. under a tent on the Slavin Center lawn. Students, alumni, faculty, staff and friends of the college were expected.
Some of the money raised will go toward a renovation and addition to a women’s dormitory to house the college’s internationally accredited School of Business, which is in need of a permanent physical home, said Steven J. Maurano, associate vice president of public affairs and community relations.
Dore Hall on the eastern side of Huxley Avenue has been in use almost exclusively as a women’s dormitory since it was purchased in the 1970s, but will be gutted, refurbished and completed with an addition on the front, Maurano said.
“We hope to break ground sometime next year,” he added.
Besides the school of business facility, funds raised will be put toward the college’s endowment, which provides scholarship aid for students and other support, improving academic programs, advancing the school’s Catholic and Dominican mission and increasing the college’s annual fund, Shanley said. The effort is being made both to attract more students and more faculty, he said.
PC’s endowment recently exceeded the $200 million mark, but remains below that of peer institutions like Holy Cross, which has approximately $635 million, or Boston College, which has nearly $1.9 million, Maurano said.
“I dream of the day when we are at the point where our endowment enables us to meet 100 percent of the financial need of our students, as many other top institutions do,” Shanley said. “That’s our most important goal, in my mind — being able to fund the scholarships we need to attract the best students we can.
“The size of our endowment needs to match the value and worth of the institution so that Providence College can remain competitive in what is an increasingly challenging environment for private higher education,” he added.
At 1,030, PC’s Class of 2018 is one of the largest the college has welcomed in the past 10 years. All told, the school has 4,734 students, including undergraduates, graduates and students in the college’s School of Continuing Education.
Campaign co-chairmen include the Hon. William C. Leary, class of 1960, and Kevin C. Phelan, class of 1966.

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