A $23 million business school building is UMD’s latest project
July 26, 2006
Duluth News Tribune
Steve Kuchera
When Duluth natives Joel and Sharon Labovitz donated $4.5 million to the University of Minnesota Duluth three years ago, they hoped the gift would spur support for a new home for the business school.
Their hope has come to fruition. UMD will hold a groundbreaking ceremony today for the $23 million Labovitz School of Business and Economics building.
It will be the fifth new building and the eighth major construction project at UMD since 2000. The other buildings include the UMD Library, Weber Music Hall, the James I. Swenson Science Building and the Robert W. Bridges Fleet/Maintenance Facility.
The Labovitzes will attend the 11 a.m. ceremony with area lawmakers and Gov. Tim Pawlenty, whose backing helped secure $15.3 million in state money for the project.
"We're absolutely ecstatic," Joel Labovitz said. "We're so lucky we can do this, and are grateful for the privilege of being able to help."
Joel Labovitz, 78, owned the Maurices clothing store chain and now owns and manages commercial properties. He's a 1949 UMD graduate in business administration and a senior fellow at the university. Beginning in 1984, he created and taught a UMD course on entrepreneurship.
Sharon Labovitz, 71, also attended UMD and the couple's son, Mark, graduated from the university.
With the family connections to UMD, it seemed natural to donate to the university, Joel Labovitz said.
"It's pretty clear we have a fine school here that needs a good building," he said. "There is every reason to feel that this a constructive use of money and we were lucky enough to be able to do this. Having a great school is a long-term legacy."
The Labovitz's donation is the second-largest gift UMD has ever received. The largest -- a $7.5 million donation that Superior native Jim Swenson made in 1999 -- helped secure state money for the $33 million science building named for Swenson, which opened last year.
It would have been much harder to sell the idea of building a new school of business and economics to lawmakers without the Labovitz donation, UMD Chancellor Kathryn A. Martin said.
"I think the Legislature values a donor's sense of the importance of a project," she said. "We are fortunate to have had the generosity of the Labovitzes."
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Posted by john5091 at July 26, 2006 10:37 AM