Southwestern University gets $3M gift

GEORGETOWN, Texas - (COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER) -- Southwestern University received a $3 million gift from the Cullen Foundation of Houston—the first major gift toward the construction of a new science center, according to a university news release.

The university is raising $24 million to completely redesign the current science facility, the Fondren-Jones Science Building, which was

initially constructed in 1954. A new wing was added to the building in 1999, yet many of the university's science laboratories are still located in the 1954 structure, according to Southwestern University.

"Our current facilities no longer adequately support today's research-based curriculum," Southwestern University President Jake B. Schrum said in a statement. "We have excellent and dedicated teacher-scholars, but we need the facilities to match."

Ben Pierce, a biology professor who has led the design plans for the new building, said the new facility will allow for more dynamic classrooms by providing more space for research and more new and modern equipment. Currently the research labs are scattered in different parts of the science building, he said, but this new building will bring all of those labs closer together, which will allow students in separate labs to interact with each other more easily. There will also be more classrooms with more flexible seating and projection screens in each corner of the classrooms, which will improve the learning process.

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