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Submitted by Saint Martin’s University

Saint Martin’s Abbey has announced that it will make an additional $500,000 challenge matching gift towards Saint Martin’s University’s Science Initiative, a campaign to build a new 30,000-square-foot classroom and laboratory facility that will house its growing natural and physical science programs. So far the University has raised $8.31 million of the projected budget of $10 million. This will be the third gift for the Abbey in support of the Science Initiative, bringing their total commitments to $1.7 million.

“This new gift paves the way for future growth and is an opportunity to tie the Abbey’s mission more closely to the University’s mission,” shared Abbot Neal Roth, OSB, major superior of Saint Martin’s Abbey and chancellor of Saint Martin’s University. “This signifies an incentive to attract others to support the University’s mission and help us work together to bring this campaign to a close.”

The University hopes to break ground for the new science building in 2018, with plans to open the building for classes by Fall 2019.

The Science Initiative follows Saint Martin’s successful Engineering Initiative, which led to the construction of two new buildings for its Hal and Inge Marcus School of Engineering: the Platinum LEED-rated 27,000-square-foot Cebula Hall in 2013 and the 17,363-square-foot Panowicz Foundry for Innovation in 2016.

Since 2013, Saint Martin’s University has experienced marked growth in enrollment across all of its STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) departments. The civil and mechanical engineering programs have seen a 30 percent increase in students. This has led to a greater demand for mathematics and physics classes, which are prerequisites for engineering. In addition, biology majors have grown to represent ten percent of all University students and the chemistry department is at its highest enrollment ever.

The new science building will include laboratories, classrooms, collaborative research spaces and offices. It will be strategically located near Cebula Hall and adjacent to the Panowicz Foundry for Innovation, which houses engineering, computer and industrial labs, creating a STEM complex at the core of the campus.

“Saint Martin’s University is blessed to have the Abbey as its sponsor,” said Saint Martin’s University President Roy Heynderickx, Ph.D. “This gift and past gifts by the Abbey for our Science Initiative is true recognition of the importance of investment in STEM students for our greater community. The Abbey is an excellent example to all of us to live and give with heart.”

For more information about the Science Initiative, including the Abbey’s challenge matching gift and other ways to support the campaign, contact Saint Martin’s Office of Institutional Advancement at advancement@stmartin.edu or 360-438-4366, or visit www.stmartin.edu/science-initiative.

Saint Martin’s University is an independent, four-year, coeducational university located on a wooded campus of more than 300 acres in Lacey, Washington. Established in 1895 by the Catholic Order of Saint Benedict, the University is one of 14 Benedictine colleges and universities in the United States and Canada, and the only one west of the Rocky Mountains. Saint Martin’s University prepares students for successful lives through its 25 majors and ten graduate programs spanning the liberal arts, business, education, nursing and engineering. Saint Martin’s welcomes more than 1,300 undergraduate students and 250 graduate students from many ethnic and religious backgrounds to its Lacey campus, and more students to its extended campus located at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. Visit the Saint Martin’s University website at www.stmartin.edu.

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