By Emily Carson
News Assignment Editor
The university announced on Tuesday that the new school of business will officially be named the William E. & Ann L. Swan Business Center. The building is named after Ann L. Swan, and her late husband, William E. Swan, ’69.
“The university’s Board of Trustees decided to honor Bill’s memory and Ann’s continued leadership in Catholic higher education at St. Bonaventure, Hilbert College and Christ the King Seminary by naming the building after them,” JackMcGinley Jr., chair of the Board of Trustees, said in a March 13 university press release.
The business building will be built between the Reilly Center and Plassmann Hall, south of the Friedsam Library. It will also include an outside quad to promote a further development of community throughout the campus.
The 26,000-square-foot center will feature a financial services lab, a corporate boardroom, updated classrooms, spaces for student collaboration, a dean’s suite, innovative technology uses, and a commitment to sustainability, according to the same press release.
Bill Swan was dedicated to the University, as a devoted alumnus and Board of Trustees chair from 1990 to 2003. He received the Alumnus of the Year award in 1988 and the university’s highest volunteer recognition, the James L. Hayes Award, in 1989.
Mrs. Swan gave a $3 million gift to St. Bonaventure’s School of Business Campaign to honor her husband.
“Bill was very proud of being a St. Bonaventure graduate and he reminded business colleagues and associates the world over that the Franciscans have something to say about business,” Mrs. Swan said in the same press release. “It was our dream to help his alma mater make a clear and distinctive statement about the School of Business.”
The University began the School of Business campaign to raise $15 million need to build the center. $10 million will be used for construction; $4 million will be used in endowments for faculty and programmatic support, and $1 million for endowment for building sustainability. To date, $13.1 million has been raised.
carsonek10@bonaventure.edu
