LaGrange College announces $65 million fundraising campaign
Sept. 13, 2007
LAGRANGE, Ga.—LaGrange College today announced the public launch of a $65 million comprehensive campaign, the largest fundraising effort in the school’s 176-year history.
Speaking before a crowd of supporters gathered at Highland Country Club in LaGrange, college President Stuart Gulley told the group that the centerpiece of the “Defining Moment” campaign will be the construction of a new 45,000 square-foot library that will replace the current 16,000 square-foot Banks Library.
“Without doubt, this morning’s announcement represents a defining moment in the life of LaGrange College,” Gulley said after the event. “I believe this is an opportunity for us to advance this institution in an unprecedented way and to build a state-of-the-art library that will serve as the most important facility on our campus for at least the next half century.”
Callaway Foundation Inc. has made a $6 million initial gift for the construction of the new library, and the college and foundation have endorsed a proposal that it be named in memory of Frank and Laura Lewis.
 Frank & Laura Lewis |
Frank Lewis, the college’s first black faculty member and trustee, served as the school’s library director for 22 years. Laura Lewis, also a librarian, served in area libraries for many years before finishing her career working in the college’s Admission Office.
Designed by Perry Dean Rogers Partners of Boston, the nation’s leading academic library architectural firm, the new library is expected to be one of the first LEED certified buildings in Troup County. LEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is the nationally accepted rating system for high-performance sustainable structures.
In addition to funding the construction of a new library, the campaign will focus on raising money for programs and operations as well as for scholarships and facility enhancements across the board, according to LaGrange College Vice President for Advancement David Rowe.
“This is by far the most ambitious campaign the college has ever initiated,” Rowe said. “The goal is nearly twice the amount of the last campaign conducted here in the 90s.
“We’re going to ask alumni and friends to do more than they’ve ever done before, and we believe they will because the positive impact of a successful campaign will reverberate on this campus for years to come.”
At the event, alumnus and Campaign Chair Scott Hawkins announced to the group that $59 million toward the fundraising goal has already been committed through advance gifts. Such support, he believes, reflects a true defining moment for the institution.
“I’m convinced LaGrange College is on the threshold of laying claim to being the premier liberal arts and sciences college in not only Georgia, but indeed, in the whole Southeast. We’re just a step away.
“It’s time for the LaGrange College family to come together and take that step in unison. We can do it, we should do it—and, I know, we will do it.”
College officials said that a ceremonial groundbreaking for the proposed new library should take place sometime this fall.
For updates on the campaign, visit the Defining Moment Web site at www.lagrange.edu/definingmoment.
A four-year liberal arts and sciences college affiliated with the United Methodist Church, LaGrange College is ranked in the top five and as a “best value” among 93 Southern baccalaureate colleges by U.S. News & World Report. The college is the oldest private institution of higher learning in Georgia and has an enrollment of more than 1,100 students.
