Purdue trustees approve naming of Chaney-Hale Hall of Science

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The nation’s most technologically advanced STEM building soon will have a new name.

The Purdue University Board of Trustees on Thursday (April 2) approved the naming of Purdue’s new STEM Teaching Lab facility as the Chaney-Hale Hall of Science. The naming recognizes the joint leadership gifts from Jeannie (Bachelor of Science 1961, Pharmacy) and Jim Chaney, and Judy (BS ’61, Pharmacy) and Dave Hale (BS ’59, Electrical Engineering).

The $64 million, 111,000-square-foot facility – centrally located between Hovde Hall, the Elliott Hall of Music and Purdue Armory – will provide 33 multidisciplinary laboratory classrooms for up to 15,000 undergraduates per year and optimize hands-on learning across the university’s science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines.

Labs with breakthrough technology are designated for cellular and molecular biology, biochemistry, general biology, general chemistry, organic chemistry, and anatomy and physiology. The building is home to the first new teaching-labs space on campus in nearly 50 years.

More than 80% of the students taking classes in the new building will come from outside the College of Science, including students from the colleges of Health and Human Sciences, Agriculture, Engineering, and Pharmacy.

Purdue is among the top three universities in the U.S. for the number of STEM graduates produced annually.

The Purdue University Board of Trustees on Thursday (April 2) approved the naming of Purdue’s new STEM Teaching Lab facility as the Chaney-Hale Hall of Science. From left, the lead donors are Dave Hale, Judy Hale, Jim Chaney and Jeannie Chaney. (Photo by John Underwood) Download image

“This building is a crucial next step in our continued growth in national leadership in STEM education,” Purdue President Mitch Daniels said. “These ‘labs of the future’ give us the opportunity to serve all of Purdue’s students with the best possible hands-on STEM learning environment. It’s very fitting that the power of innovative partnerships, relationships and collaboration that will take place in our newest teaching lab facility is reflected in the names of the friends whose creative generosity came together to support Chaney-Hale Hall.”

Approved by the trustees in December 2017, the Chaney-Hale Hall of Science began construction in September 2018 and will be completed in August. A dedication ceremony is planned for Oct. 10.

The naming partnership stems from a decades-long friendship forged by Jeannie Darr (now Chaney) and Judy Springer (now Hale) as pharmacy undergraduates who met in Sigma Kappa sorority. Friends throughout their undergraduate years at Purdue, they were roommates their senior year. Jeannie would later be part of Judy’s wedding to Dave Hale. Both women remember when they had labs in Purdue’s postwar Quonset huts and in the old pharmacy building.

The former classmates are proud that pharmacy has become a key component of a university world-renowned for its STEM leadership. The pharmacy program consistently ranks in the top 10 in the nation.

In February, they had a chance to tour the near-completed STEM Teaching Lab building together.

“It’s a fantastic facility – well laid out, with a thoughtful design,” Jeannie Chaney said. “I would love to work in that building. I’m happy that the students are getting what they need and that the Purdue pharmacy program is getting what it needs to remain in the top 10 – to ensure the stature of the program.”

Judy Hale said she is delighted to name the building with her friend and roommate and was equally impressed with the work-in-progress.

“It’s a wonderful place for students to have high-tech labs – to learn what they need to learn,” she said. “We’re going to be turning out some wonderful people in STEM.”

Both the Chaneys and the Hales share long histories of support for Purdue University and the College of Pharmacy in particular.

Jeannie and Jim Chaney are the College of Pharmacy’s top private donors. Thanks to their lifetime giving to the university and the college, they received the President’s Council Crystal Boilermaker Special Train, the highest honor presented to alumni and friends for private giving. Jeannie is a past chair of the Purdue President’s Council and a founding member of the new Women for Purdue philanthropic organization. Jim Chaney, a Dennison University graduate, is the owner of Cleveland Syrup.

After college, Judy Hale worked as a pharmacist before she and Dave raised their family and was also involved in Scale-Tronix, a business Dave co-founded that had a significant portion of the hospital scales market in the country. The Hales’ first major gift to Purdue was in support of a student fellowship in the Center for Medication Safety Advancement, a program affiliated with the College of Pharmacy. The Hales also provide philanthropic support for the Purdue School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

After attending a President’s Council Back to Class session in 2018, the Hales learned more about Purdue’s growing reputation in the STEM disciplines.

With the new STEM teaching facility under construction, they committed a gift to name two of more than 30 planned labs. The labs named in their honor will face the doors to the backstage of Elliott Hall, where the couple met as students while working on a production of the play “Teahouse of the August Moon.”

Trustees also took actions on other Purdue West Lafayette facilities.

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a top public research institution developing practical solutions to today’s toughest challenges. Ranked the No. 6 Most Innovative University in the United States by U.S. News & World Report, Purdue delivers world-changing research and out-of-this-world discovery. Committed to hands-on and online, real-world learning, Purdue offers a transformative education to all. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue has frozen tuition and most fees at 2012-13 levels, enabling more students than ever to graduate debt-free. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap at purdue.edu.

Media contact: Tom Schott, 765-494-9318, tschott@purdue.edu

Sources: Mitch Daniels, president@purdue.edu

Jeannie Chaney

Judy Hale

Note to Journalists: A photo of the donors and an architect’s rendering of the Chaney-Hale Hall of Science are available on Google Drive.