Charles Peer reacts after finding out that $2 million was given anonymously to create an endowed chair, the Charles Peer Endowed Chair in Visual Arts, named after him. Peer has worked as a professor at JBU since 1987, and is an award winning pastel artist.
John Brown University of Siloam Springs on Wednesday announced about $5 million in new gifts toward a $125 million fundraising campaign the university is calling “Campaign for the Next Century: A Hope and Future.”
The seven-year campaign, which began privately in 2012, has already received $58.3 million in pledges and donations. By unveiling the public phase of the campaign, JBU officials aim to raise $35 million in scholarships, $30 million for facilities, $10 million for academic endowments, $25 million in estate gifts for future endowments and $25 million for future projects and operating support.
The campaign is set to end in 2019, the university’s 100th anniversary.
“Since the university’s founding almost 100 years ago, JBU has endeavored to train students to honor God through service to others,” JBU President Chip Pollard said in a new release.
“As we look forward to the start of JBU’s next century, this campaign is about strengthening that same foundation of excellent Christian higher education so that future JBU students will also have the opportunity for a hope and a future.”
University leaders announced the campaign and new donations during a Wednesday morning event at the Berry Performing Arts Center on the JBU campus.
Among Wednesday’s campaign donations were three gifts from anonymous donors:
- $2 million to create the Charles Peer Endowed Chair in Visual Arts
- A $1 million gift challenge grant for visual arts scholarships
- $1.2 million for renovation of the Walton Lifetime Health Complex
JBU also announced a $300,000 donation from the Soderquist Family Foundation to support new initiatives at JBU’s Donald G. Soderquist College of Business. The money will support development of new graduate and undergraduate programs like retail analytics and entrepreneurial studies.
And the university announced a preliminary donation of $500,000 from the city of Siloam Springs for the Walton Lifetime Health Complex.
The complex, originally built in 1998 with a lead donation from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. founder Sam Walton and his wife, Helen, is undergoing a $5.5 million renovation that will expand the complex’s HVAC system, revamp the indoor pool, improve fitness areas and more.
The university previously announced other projects funded under donations and pledges that are part of the fundraising campaign. Those include:
- The $6 million Simmons Great Hall, a 600-person banquet hall that opened in 2013
- The $3 million Northslope Apartments, which opened in 2013 and provides student housing to 94
- The $5.5 million renovation of J. Alvin Hall, which was completed last year
A $12 million building fund and endowment for a proposed nursing program. A ground breaking on a new nursing building is set for August.
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