Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

From staff reports

With enthusiasm and readiness, Asbury University is moving Forward in Faith with the construction of its Collaborative Learning Center (CLC), a more than 50,000-square-foot building that will house the Howard and Beverly Dayton School of Business and the School of Science, Health & Mathematics.
Following approval from the Board of Trustees at the University’s Spring Board Meeting in early April, the groundbreaking for the CLC has been set for June 22 and will occur during Asbury’s 2019 Reunion festivities so students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends can all take part in the celebration of this historic moment.
After the groundbreaking, the architects will work to complete construction documents and construction will progress based upon current funds received and pledged, and as additional resources are generated.
“It is with great excitement that we announce the groundbreaking of the Collaborative Learning Center, scheduled for Reunion weekend,” Asbury University President Sandra C. Gray said. “We move Forward in Faith, with prayerful anticipation, trusting God for the provision of the remaining funds needed to complete construction. The CLC is a significant next step in advancing the mission of Asbury University.”
Funding for the CLC is being generated through Asbury’s Ignited Campaign, a six-year, $62-million initiative that began in 2014 and will reach completion in the summer of 2020.
“While celebrating historic philanthropic support of more than $13.3 million, breaking ground on the CLC before the completion of fundraising is a step of faith,” Dr. Mark Troyer, vice president for Institutional Advancement & Strategic Partnerships at Asbury. “As the children of Israel stepped into the Jordan as a way to show their faith that God would provide, we are excited that our Board has also stepped into the groundbreaking for the CLC in faith as we continue to work to complete the fundraising needed.”
The new facility will include: labs and classrooms, conference rooms, a sales training center, entrepreneurial group work room, faculty offices and an atrium and auditorium.
The CLC — which will be located in the center of the AU campus — seeks to encourage undergraduate research, build excellence through collaboration and teach business as a mission. The CLC will also create the potential for new innovative and collaborative academic programming such as: financial services institute, environmental economics, health care administration, computational biology, bioinformatics and physician’s assistant.
“The Center will provide enhanced programming opportunity with the excellence essential for equipping our students as the next generation of professional and spiritual leaders,” Gray said. “The CLC is sure to be a place that fosters academic excellence and spiritual vitality within our Dayton School of Business and School of Science, Health & Mathematics as we develop a collaborative approach to higher education. It is an immense and sacred privilege to move forward with this building project.”
For Dr. Vins Sutlive, dean of the School of Science, Health & Mathematics, the groundbreaking of the CLC signifies the University’s commitment to future faculty and students in the science, math and business programs. Sutlive looks forward to seeing how the new facilities will further improve science programming, which is currently housed in the Hamann-Ray Science Center.
“A great many excellent faculty and students have worked together in Hamann-Ray,” Sutlive said. “Over time, laboratory design, instrumentation, experimental methods and available technology have changed since Hamann-Ray was built. The new laboratory spaces and technology in the Collaborative Learning Center will allow students and faculty to build on the tradition of excellence that has been established.”
Through the next year, the Ignited Campaign will continue to focus on moving the University forward in faith. In addition to the CLC, the Ignited Campaign has been working to fund scholarships, institutional programming and other building projects such as the revitalization of the Student Center and construction of the Windsor Manor Guesthouse.
“We are so excited and honored to be taking the next step toward the Collaborative Learning Center being used by our students,” Troyer said. “God has blessed us, and we look forward to continued favor as we complete the fundraising on this important project for our campus.”
Learn more about the Ignited Campaign at Asbury University by visiting asbury.edu/ignited.