Submitted by Saint Martin’s University
Saint Martin’s University is $250,000 closer to breaking ground for its newest academic building — an industrial laboratory — thanks to a grant from the M. J. Murdock Charitable Trust out of Vancouver, Washington.
The award from the Murdock Trust is a capping grant, which means the University must raise the remaining $200,000 to achieve its $2.7 million goal before receiving the grant funds. This remaining amount will be raised through private gifts from alumni and friends of the University.
“We are so pleased with the generous support from the Murdock Trust,” says Saint Martin’s University President Roy Heynderickx, Ph.D. “This is their second grant to our Engineering Initiative, which first gave us Cebula Hall, and now the industrial lab.”
The University plans to break ground this fall on a 14,000-square-foot industrial laboratory building that will house the facilities necessary for civil and mechanical engineering students to conduct hands-on experiments with fluids, manufacturing, robotics and mechatronics, soils and materials testing. The building also will include a technology classroom, regular classrooms and faculty offices.
“Our Trustees are pleased to see the growth in the engineering and STEM programs at Saint Martin’s. It is our pleasure to support your project,” says Moses Lee, Ph.D., program director, Research & Science, M. J. Murdock Charitable Trust. Since launching the Engineering Initiative in 2010, the University has seen a 35-percent increase in mechanical, civil and engineering management enrollment.
“We are grateful to the Murdock Trust for their continued support of our engineering program,” says Zella Kahn-Jetter, Ph.D., P.E., dean of the Saint Martin’s Hal and Inge Marcus School of Engineering. “This grant will provide much needed space for our growing enrollment and a new space for our new and current faculty to conduct their research.”
The Murdock Trust was created by the will of the late Melvin J. (Jack) Murdock, co-founder of Tektronix, Inc. The Trust’s mission is to enrich the quality of life in the Pacific Northwest by providing grants and enrichment programs to organizations seeking to strengthen the region’s educational, spiritual and cultural base in creative and sustainable ways. In addition to having a special interest in education and scientific research, the Trust partners with a wide variety of organizations that serve the arts, public affairs, health and medicine, human services, leadership development and persons with disabilities.
