YSU campaign receives $500,000 donation
First Place Bank targeted the gift to the university’s new business college.
By ANGIE SCHMITT
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown State University’s Centennial Capital Campaign received a $500,000 boost from First Place Bank.
The endowment, announced Wednesday, is the largest put forward by a corporation in the five-year history of the $43 million fund-raising campaign. It will be earmarked for the construction of the new Warren P. Williamson College of Business Administration, a $30 million project.
Rather than a gift, the bank’s chief executive officer, Steve Lewis, said he sees the donation as an investment in the community.
“There’s a new, bold, fresh wind that is blowing through the Valley, and this effort at the university is part of that,” he said. The new business school “is not a symbol of achievement. It is a means of achievement.”
Through the capital campaign, YSU hopes to increase the size of its endowment and scholarship funds as well as construct a new home for its business college and fund other capital projects. First Place Bank’s donation brings the total generated by the campaign to about $30 million, said university spokesman Ron Cole.
The donation’s importance
University President David Sweet joined Lewis in emphasizing the value of the donation in terms of community development.
“This represents the essence of what the Valley needs for its revitalization — the coming together of the private and public sector,” he said.
Betty Jo Licata, dean of the business college, said the university expects to break ground on the new 100,000-square-foot building this year.
“I’m ready to paint those shovels gold,” she said.
Licata also highlighted the business school’s potential to revitalize the area. Economic development programs housed at the college are one of the forces driving the need for updated facilities, she said.
“We want to continue to increase our role as a resource provider for the city,” she said.
But Licata added that the college’s primary role of educating its 1,600 students has its civic value as well.
“Our mission in the college of business is to prepare our students to be leaders — not only leaders in the business world, but leaders in the community,” she said.