Purdue News

September 12, 2002 Purdue to launch campaign, break ground, celebrate gifts WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue University will launch the most ambitious drive in Indiana history to raise private support as the capstone of a Discover Purdue Week of gift announcements and groundbreakings on Sept. 19-28. Many of the events, including the 10:30 a.m. Sept. 27 news conference in Loeb Playhouse that will announce the campaign, are open to the public. Among the gifts to be announced are two that are the largest ever for Purdue. The week will end with a Homecoming that will create an outdoor celebration larger and unlike any other that Purdue alumni have previously experienced. "Each event during Discover Purdue Week was selected because of its relationship to the university's strategic plan and the goals of our fund-raising campaign," said Murray Blackwelder, senior vice president for advancement. "This will be an enormously exciting time at Purdue, with three groundbreakings and 15 announcements of private funding for numerous programs and buildings in our strategic plan." Discover Purdue Week, first celebrated last fall, invites the public to learn about the university – its leadership and its future potential for economic development, research and education. This year, the Discover Purdue Week agenda includes: Thursday, Sept. 19: Purdue will unveil a new identity – logos, colors and typeface that will be used in the future wherever the university's name appears. Friday, Sept. 20: Purdue's nationally top-ranked Division of Analytical Chemistry will announce two major gifts. One will create a new academic chair. The other will honor retiring Professor Harry Pardue and create a new center. Saturday, Sept. 21: Purdue will announce gifts at the President's Council pregame event from an alumnus to build an indoor golf facility and the Hall of Achievement in the Dick and Sandy Dauch Alumni Center. The President's Council event will begin in the Purdue Memorial Union Ballrooms three hours before the Purdue/Wake Forest football game that day. Monday, Sept. 23: Purdue will "break ground" for the $7 million, 31,000-square-foot Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship in Discovery Park. The event will start at 10:30 a.m. in Elliott Hall of Music. The public is invited. Tuesday, Sept. 24: The School of Liberal Arts will announce the largest gift to date for the $38 million Visual and Performing Arts Building. The new building, under construction on the South Campus, will house Purdue's theater, art and design, music, and dance academic programs. Wednesday, Sept. 25: The School of Veterinary Medicine will announce several gifts – which together will make the largest private investment in the school's history. Wednesday, Sept. 25: Purdue will announce a major gift toward its first indoor tennis facility. Thursday, Sept. 26: General Motors Corp., Sun Microsystems and EDS will award Purdue the largest corporate gift in university's history. The public is invited to the news conference, which begins at 10:30 a.m. in Loeb Playhouse. Thursday, Sept. 26: Caspar Weinberger, former U.S. secretary of defense and current chairman of Forbes magazine, will be the keynote dinner speaker at Purdue's Krannert School of Management second annual Leadership Speakers Series in the Westin Hotel, 50 S. Capitol Ave., Indianapolis. A special leadership award will be presented to Indianapolis-area executive William Bindley, chairman and CEO of Bindley Capital Partners LLC. For ticket availability to this Purdue alumni event, contact Tim Newton, (765) 496-7271, tnewton@mgmt.purdue.edu. Thursday, Sept. 26: The annual Purdue Boilermaker Night Train Parade will begin at 7 p.m. at the intersection of Tower and North Russell drives and end at Ross-Ade Stadium. A pep rally will follow at 8 p.m. on Slayter Hill. The evening will conclude with a concert on the hill at 9 p.m. Friday, Sept. 27: Purdue will break ground at 9 a.m. at the intersection of U.S. 231 and South River Road for a civil engineering laboratory that will be among the best in the nation for studying large structures such as bridges and buildings. Researchers believe the lab will have direct applications in designing structures that better withstand earthquakes, are safer and last longer. The public is invited. Friday, Sept. 27: Purdue will announce the largest campaign of any college or university in Indiana and announce its largest-ever gift from an individual during a 10:30 a.m. news conference in Loeb Playhouse. A portion of the gift will fund Purdue's new biosciences/engineering building in Discovery Park. The public is invited. Saturday, Sept. 28: More than 10,000 alumni are expected to return for the largest Homecoming event in Purdue history. The Discover Purdue Homecoming celebration will begin at 11:30 a.m. at the Purdue Mall and Purdue Memorial Mall. Various speakers will address alumni on the Purdue (Engineering) Mall, with Purdue President Martin C. Jischke scheduled to talk at 3:30 p.m. Astronauts will be available to sign autographs and pose for pictures. Purdue will sponsor live entertainment, sports contests, children's activities, as well as school and departmental displays highlighting various areas. The Homecoming schedule can be viewed on the web. Saturday, Sept. 28: Purdue's School of Chemical Engineering will break ground at 10 a.m. in the parking lot behind the Chemical Engineering Building on a facilities expansion project expected to cost more than $20 million. The school will build a five-story, 96,000-square-foot addition on the current building and equip the facility with state-of-the-art technologies and high-performance instrumentation. The public is invited. Writer: Jeanne V. Norberg, (765) 494-2084; home: (765) 449-4986; jnorberg@purdue.edu Source: Murray Blackwelder, (765) 496-2144; mblackwelder@purdue.edu Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu To the Purdue News and Photos Page