Niagara University today launched "the most significant fund-raising campaign" in its 150-year history-an $80-million drive that will expand and enhance facilities, endow professorships and scholarships, and begin a major reorientation of the Lewiston, N.Y., campus.

Plans for the campaign, called "The Promise of Niagara: The Next 150 Years," were outlined at a news conference attended by more than 200 representatives of various university constituencies.

"At this point in time, we begin a public effort to garner the resources needed to chart the history of Niagara for another 150 years," said the Rev. Joseph L. Levesque, C.M., 25 th president of NU. "This is a pivotal day that will be looked on as the beginning of a new era of excellence for Niagara University."

Roughly half of the $80 million to be raised will be committed to capital projects, including an academic complex already under construction and a new $25-million science building. Nearly $30 million will go to various endowments for professorships, for existing and new academic programs, and for graduate and undergraduate scholarships. The remaining $10 million will go toward the Niagara Fund, which supports a number of university priorities ranging from academics to student life.

Calling it "the most significant fund-raising campaign in our history," Robert J. Dwyer, chairman of the university's board of trustees and chairman of the campaign, called the $80-million goal ambitious, but both realistic and achievable. He said the university intends to reach it by 2011.

"It is realistic because that is what it will take to allow Niagara to transform our physical and academic environment in order to grow stronger and to remain competitive. And it is achievable, with strong support from our benefactors, alumni and friends, and through the hard work of our president and the entire campus community," Dwyer said.

Some $30 million has already been raised in the silent phase of the campaign, including a $5-million gift from alumnus Jerry Bisgrove of the Class of 1968. Facilities for the College of Business Administration, which will be housed in the new $18.65-million academic complex, will bear Bisgrove's name.

The 56,000 square-foot academic complex, which will also be home to the College of Education, will open in August. It will include a financial services laboratory or trading floor; a Bloomberg Room; a board room and conference center; centers for logistics, family business, international accounting, entrepreneurship, family literacy and family counseling; teaching clusters that encourage student-faculty interaction; and teaching labs that emulate the K-12 classroom.

A total of $16.5 million will be raised in the campaign for a new science center and to support bioinformatics. The new center will provide lab resources to foster research collaborations among faculty and students in biology, chemistry, physics and other disciplines, and to develop new research partnerships with local biological, biochemical, chemical and computational sciences organizations.

Dr. Bonnie Rose, executive vice president and vice president for academic affairs, noted that "cutting-edge research" is already being done on the NU campus. A drug-delivery system to fight brain and breast tumors, developed by chemistry professor Dr. Mary McCourt, is already patent pending.

Also included in the campaign are expanded and upgraded athletic facilities, improved theater resources, and a new residence for the Vincentian fathers and brothers who live on campus.

Father Levesque said the resources provided by the campaign will allow the university to begin implementing the first phase of a campus master plan over the next five years. In addition to the science building, a new resident dining commons will be built and the food court in the Gallagher Center will be renovated. The Leary Theatre will also be renovated and a two-story addition will be built to provide a new entrance and lobby.

Two new artificial turf fields will be built behind the Kiernan Center, complete with spectator seating, lighting and press boxes. The center will also be expanded to provide locker rooms and other amenities to support the new fields, and an expanded fitness center for all students.

The new Vincentian residence will replace Meade Hall, which is likely to be converted into office space. New landscaping and parking are also in the plan, including a new entrance off Witmer Road and conversion of the main parking lot into green space. Father Levesque noted that the university's negotiations with the New York Power Authority will provide the university with additional land that will allow it to connect the core of the campus with the Witmer Road entrance.

Phase two of the master plan will see further enhancement of academic and student facilities, parking and landscaping.

For more information on "The Promise of Niagara ... The Next 150 Years," visit the campaign Web site at www.niagara.edu/promise/.

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