By Matt Morr ’17
Staff Writer
Merrimack College recently unveiled plans to build a new academic building along with new athletic fields on campus under a campaign called Together for Good. The campaign’s goal is to raise $50 million by 2019.
According to President Christopher Hopey, it is being called “the largest fundraising campaign in our history.”
A revamped Academic Success Center located in McQuade Library will provide improved labs and classroom spaces for advising and tutoring. In addition, the North Campus Academic District will be built for the Girard School of Business, providing students and faculty with 14 more classrooms and other event spaces. Other programs such as STEM and Communication will benefit from the space as well.
Athletics will also be taking a step forward. An Athletics District will boast new fields and extra facilities for intramural and club teams. A stadium with 2,500 seats is also in the works, along with a 400-meter, eight-lane track.
$21 million will be used for study abroad, service learning, clinical learning experiences, and undergraduate research.
The future addition seem to be beneficial due to the influx of students over the recent years. Just in President Hopey’s time at Merrimack, the undergraduate program has notably increased.
Students generally are big proponents of these upcoming changes, but the only negative is the price. Junior Danielle Breton agreed.
“These new changes are going to be very cool, but the $50 million seems like a very hefty price for this,” said Breton.
The school has already started to fundraise and has raised more than $28 million so far.
“This seems very nice but the price tag caught my eye…That’s a lot! This is awesome, but it’s just too bad we’ll have graduated by the time this is all put into place,” said junior Katie McIntyre.
For more information about Together for Good, visit Merrimack’s website: www.merrimack.edu/togetherforgood
