Twenty-five million is one pretty penny to donate to DePauw's campus.
We want to thank Mr. and Mrs. Hoover for the kindness and loyalty they are showing to their alma mater with this contribution.
The creation of a new dining hall, fittingly christened Hoover Hall, promises a central place on campus for students to congregate. The Union Building will be reworked into offices for Civil, Global & Professional Opportunities, Student Life, Public Safety and other student-help organizations.
Buzz about this new addition to campus has been circulating rapidly, as dramatic news usually does.
Although it's likely the current generation of students will have departed to the "real world" by the time the new dining hall is created, we are still excited to hear that our school is continuously improving.
We want the university to keep developing so when we return we can see all the great adaptations made since our graduations. When we bring our children back one day, secretly with the hopes that they'll follow in our footsteps and walk along East College lawn to classes, we will marvel at the new improvements and maybe remember when we heard news of a new dining hall. We want to be even more proud of our school than when we attended.
The 2020 plan is underway, and we are glad to see the administration executing on their blueprints. This new addition shows that the plan is building strength. We hope the momentum will continue and spread to some of the other buildings seriously in need of some TLC.
The administration should next aggressively focus their funding efforts on buildings most used by students, like the library for studying and the Lilly Center for athletics. Improvements to these two buildings will encourage future students to come to DePauw since they are main attractions when it comes to buildings on campus.
We hope alumni see the need of helping Roy O. Library next - a building in the highest need of improvement. The interior of Roy should match the beautiful exterior. The library is a dark and worn (in some spots, smelly...) space to study for current students and a spot tour guides hurry through. During graduation, the backdrop is the aesthetically pleasing exterior but the building is disappointing on the inside.
We want the 2020 plan to both improve upon on our already lovely campus and fix the problem areas within. It's about making lasting change for the future.
Again, many thanks to the Hoovers for their donation. Like Mr. Hoover noted, most DePauw students' experiences were made because of generous alum. The positive feedback loop of alum aiding students so those student can return and do the same is a testament to DePauw's connective powers.
We'll do our best to pitch in down the road if this journalism thing ever works out.