PROVO — The Gordon B. Hinckley Alumni and Visitors Center is on a fast track, thanks to 40,000 donors.
Brigham Young University plans to tear down its Alumni House next month and begin construction on the Hinckley Visitors Center this summer, now that more than half of the $35 million price tag has been raised in just six months from faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends of the university.
BYU rarely names a building after a living person. Alumni and others clearly see this as an opportunity to express their feelings for President Hinckley, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which owns BYU.
"To recognize your gift, your name will appear in a book of donors presented to President Hinckley," BYU President Cecil Samuelson wrote in an e-mail sent to alumni this week.
"A copy of this book will also be displayed in the building and placed in a time capsule in memory of the generous thousands who sacrificed to help build the (center)."
Donations will pay for the entire project, which Samuelson said will provide an attractive "front gate" to the campus.
Samuelson's e-mail included a sneak preview of an artist's sketch of the center. A color rendering could be released as early as next week, BYU spokeswoman Carri Jenkins said.
Jenkins said the project is expected to be completed by fall 2007.
Many of the donations have been doubled through matching funds. Student gifts have been quintupled.
All gifts of $25 to $5,000 are matched by members of the BYU President's Leadership Council.
A $5,000 gift from a BYU student is worth $30,000, because Ira and Mary Lou Fulton are making 5-to-1 matches on student gifts up to that amount.
The BYU Alumni Associa-
tion committed to raise $10 million. "We're more than halfway there," said Jeff Hunt, director of annual giving. "BYU alumni are incredibly generous people. We see tens of thousands of gifts roll in each year. It's incredibly humbling to sit in this position and see people who want to help this university."
The rest of the building's cost is to be paid for through donations to LDS Philanthropies, previously known as the LDS Foundation.
The fund-raising effort has remained fairly low-key. Samuelson first announced the project during a meeting with alumni leaders during Homecoming Week in October. He told students about it during a campus family home evening in November.
The 80,000-square-foot center will replace the Alumni House, built in 1961 across the street and west of the Abraham Smoot Building (ASB).
Those interested in donating can do so online at byu.edu/gbhb. BYU officials said the payment is secured through encryption and that credit-card information will be deleted after a donor's account is charged. No personal information is shared with other organizations.
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