Hendrix College has been awarded a $1.5 million challenge grant from the J.E. and L.E. Mabee Foundation of Tulsa, Okla., to help fund the college’s new $22.8 million Student Life and Technology Center, proposed to be one of the most interactive and tech-savvy college facilities in the country. To apply for the $1.5 million grant, Hendrix raised approximately half of the construction cost of the building. To receive the money, the College must raise an additional $11 million by January 1, 2009.
The grant marks the continuation of a long-standing relationship between the Mabee Foundation and Hendrix College, beginning in 1972 when Hendrix received $300,000 from the foundation to help construct the Wilbur D. Mills Center for Social Sciences. Since then, The Mabee Foundation has contributed more than $5 million to five additional building projects at Hendrix, including a $2 million grant in 2004 to help fund the college’s recently-constructed $23 million Wellness and Athletics Center.
“For more than 25 years, the Mabee Foundation has played a vital role in the development of facilities at Hendrix College that enhance the academic and co-curricular programs, and student life on our campus,” Hendrix president J. Timothy Cloyd said. “Their gifts have helped Hendrix develop into a national leader in the engaged liberal arts.”
The new 80,000 square-foot Student Life and Technology Center will be constructed on the former site of Hendrix’s Grove Gymnasium, adjacent to Harkrider Avenue on the east side of the college’s campus. President Cloyd said the new facility will be “designed to reflect our students’ keen enthusiasm for engaging in active learning and life experiences outside of class.”
The Mabee Foundation, a Delaware non-profit corporation, was formed in 1948 by Mr. John E. Mabee and his wife, Lottie E. Mabee, with its office in Tulsa, Okla. As stated in its charter, the purposes of the foundation are to aid Christian religious organizations, charitable organizations, institutions of higher learning, hospitals and other organizations of a general charitable nature.