Submitted by Saint Martin’s University
LACEY, WASHINGTON — The Norcliffe Foundation of Seattle, Wash., has awarded a grant in the amount of $505,000 to the Engineering Initiative at Saint Martin’s University. The gift is designated for construction of Fr. Richard Cebula, O.S.B. Hall, the new engineering building, which was designed with the goal of achieving a LEED Platinum rating for its green construction.
The grant from The Norcliffe Foundation will leverage a “top-off grant” of $600,000 from the M. J. Murdock Charitable Trust to finishing paying for the construction of Cebula Hall.
“We are thankful to The Norcliffe Foundation for its generosity,” says Saint Martin’s President Roy F. Heynderickx, Ph.D. “Our students will benefit the most from this grant as it directly supports engineering labs and classrooms. The magnitude of this grant allows us to claim success on completing the fundraising for the new engineering building and it sets the stage for further fundraising to support an industrial lab building and lab equipment. This could not be done without this significant grant from Norcliffe.”
Engineering classes began in Cebula Hall in January 2013. The building features exposed systems, such as the geothermal heating and cooling system, that are used as teaching tools.
“We are so grateful to The Norcliffe Foundation for this grant,” says Zella Kahn-Jetter, Ph.D., P.E., dean of The Hal and Inge Marcus School of Engineering. “This building is giving our students an opportunity to study in an incredibly sustainable state-of-the-art facility. The building is also designed to provide areas for collaborative learning between students and faculty. When you walk around the building, you see that. There’s a buzz. Faculty and students are excited about all the wonderful things going on here.”
The Norcliffe Foundation is a private nonprofit family foundation in Seattle, Wash., serving the Puget Sound region. It was established in 1952 by Paul Pigott for the purpose of improving the quality of life of all people in the community.
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 23 majors and seven graduate programs spanning the liberal arts, business, education, nursing and engineering. Saint Martin’s welcomes more than 1,100 undergraduate students and 400 graduate students from many ethnic and religious backgrounds to its Lacey campus, and 300 more undergraduate students to its extension campuses located at Joint Base Lewis-McChord and Centralia College. Visit the Saint Martin’s University website at www.stmartin.edu.
