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Michael Slevin and Brenda Leahy, husband and wife and both UW-L staff members, placed the ad to sell their van to raise money for the new academic building, Centennial Hall.
Slevin, UW-L student service coordinator, and Leahy, a career adviser at UW-L, have a combined total of 26 years dedicated to the university.
When Chancellor Joe Gow and his wife, Betsy Valentine, pledged $30,000 to Centennial Hall, that fueled Slevin and Leahy’s decision to give what they could.
“To see someone relatively new to the campus community who already realizes what a great institution we have — that inspired us to give,” said Leahy.
Unfortunately, no one took the bait on the ad, and Leahy and Slevin decided to donate the van to Rawhide Boys Ranch.
“We will still donate to the campaign, but not as much as we had hoped to,” she said.
Leahy and Slevin wanted to give to the new building specifically because of the need for an up-to-date facility conducive to learning on campus, Leahy said. Centennial Hall will be the first new classroom facility on the UW-L campus since 1974.
About 37 percent of UW-L’s faculty and staff have given a total of about $625,000 to Centennial Campaign, which includes six major initiatives: the academic building, the annual fund, faculty awards and development, scholarships, the Veterans Memorial Field Sports Complex and undergraduate research, said Al Trapp, vice president of the UW-L Foundation.
That campaign, which seeks to raise $40 million, will run though June 2012.
“A strong, shared commitment from UW-L faculty sends a clear message to prospective donors of the urgent need to support the Centennial Campaign, including the new academic building,” said Trapp.
A group that represents campus leaders and community members has teamed up to donate a total of $250,000 to the academic building portion of the campaign, according to Ron Rada, faculty emeritus, who worked with Carl Wimberly, vice chancellor emeritus, to raise those funds.
“The academic building is arguably one of the most important building projects in the lifetime of our campus,” Rada said. “We’ve really outgrown our space.”
Fundraising update
The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Foundation has raised about $2.3 million toward the academic building, said Al Trapp, the foundation’s vice president. The foundation is still in the process of working with local banks to secure a letter of credit for $6 million by Nov. 30. The foundation must have $6 million in cash and pledges to get $38 million in state funding to pay for the $44 million building. UW-L plans to break ground on the building in spring 2009.
