July 4, 2006 - 5:00pm
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Corporations, businesses and individuals can purchase a piece of Malaspina University-College’s $9 million Faculty of Management Centre and name it for themselves thanks to a new initiative.
The Naming Rights Campaign aims to raise $2 million through community partnerships toward the final construction costs of the 36,000 square foot building, nestled between the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />International Education Building and Student Services on the Nanaimo campus. The Province of British Columbia has committed to paying $7 million of the $9 million construction costs under the condition Malaspina would raise the remaining $2 million.
To help raise those funds, Malaspina is offering community businesses and individuals an opportunity to purchase a piece of the centre as their namesake.
“A corporation may see the project as an opportunity to build brand, build market, or it simply may be part of their corporate social responsibility commitment to their community,” said David James, Faculty of Management Centre Project Director.
“ For an individual or family, their involvement might be their commitment to education, or their legacy to Malaspina and their community.
Our Partnership Agreements will be innovative, offering our partners a return on their investment in both this project and in Malaspina. Benefits may include preferred access to campus facilities, like the state-of-the art lecture theatre, preferred access to programs or trade space and preferred access to consulting expertise, such as MBA students or research resources.”
Business people, community leaders and Malaspina faculty had an opportunity to tour the nearly completed building and learn of the new initiative during an invitation-only Hard Hat Reception June 22.
The building means a lot to faculty, staff and especially students.
Nanaimo resident Feron Walker, one of this year’s Masters of Business Administration graduates, said she’s pleased to see the centre being built because it will strengthen the value of her own MBA.
“I am excited for the future business students entering, or enrolled in, the Faculty of Management as they will have this essential venue in which to attain a formal business education, earning prestige for themselves, their families, for Malaspina and for the community beyond these walls,” said Walker, during a speech at the Hard Hat Reception.
“Building an employment pool in your own backyard makes sense, solves problems and provokes innovation. It is a strategic investment.”
Walker graduated from Nanaimo District Secondary School and earned her undergraduate degree from Malaspina before taking the MBA program.
“Offering a MBA at Malaspina erases a huge barrier for so many people in my position,” said Walker, who is both a mother and a wife.
“I was extremely pleased to be able to broaden my employment opportunities with an MBA degree right here in Nanaimo.”
The new centre is set to open in fall 2006. Once it is completely operational, more than 1,200 domestic and international students taking diplomas, undergraduate and graduate degrees in Accounting, Economics, E-Management, Financial Services, Hospitality Management, Human Resource Management, International Business, Management, Marketing, Masters of Business Administration and Recreation and Tourism Management will use this facility every year.
“Community support for education today is certainly about students, scholarships and bursaries, however, more so now than ever, our requirements are about buildings and programs and bringing both the private and public sectors together,” said James of the new initiative.
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Tags: In the Community
