$2M grant to help build Hiram center

The gift could present
opportunities for students
to pursue business ventures.

HIRAM — Hiram College has been given a $2 million grant from The Burton D. Morgan Foundation to help construct, furnish and equip The Burton D. Morgan Entrepreneurship Center.

The center will be part of a $7.6 million, 102-bed residence hall being built on campus.

“We’re obviously quite pleased that The Burton D. Morgan Foundation chose to support our effort to create hands-on learning experiences beyond the classroom,” said Hiram President Thomas V. Chema. “When the new residence hall opens this August, The Burton D. Morgan Entrepreneurship Center will be the cornerstone of infusing an entrepreneurial spirit into the campus environment.”

“We believe that the juxtaposition of the center and the entrepreneurship residential learning community will present unique opportunities for Hiram students to pursue their ideas both inside and outside the classroom,” said Deborah D. Hoover, Morgan Foundation president.

The center will house a 50-seat lecture hall, an incubator classroom, offices for the entrepreneurship center director and assistant director, meeting spaces and a two-bedroom Entrepreneur-in-Residence suite.

The center will occupy 7,105 square feet on the first floor of the new residence hall.

“This structure will create a richer and more meaningful educational experience for students and may even lead to synergies of ideas and business ventures,” Hoover said.

In November 2006, Hiram College was one of five grant recipients of the Northeast Ohio Collegiate Entrepreneurship Program for its E-Integration@Hiram program to integrate the concepts of entrepreneurship into the liberal arts through curricular and extracurricular activities to reach all students.

The grant from the foundation is among the largest gifts in Hiram’s history.

The private foundation, established in 1967, was created “to strengthen the free enterprise system by investing in organizations and institutions that foster the entrepreneurial spirit.” The foundation carries out the legacy of founder and entrepreneur, Burton D. Morgan, who died in 2003.