Thrive update: completed funding, new projects and departmental improvements

As the Thrive fundraising initiative nears completion with its biggest projects, other projects are at the forefront of fundraising goals for 2016.

“We’re in year two of Thrive, and Thrive is initially a three-year campaign,” Director of Advancement Operations Will Blanchard said. “So, everything – if it’s been on a back burner – is going to be on a front burner very, very soon.”

Blanchard said the two main objectives for Thrive fundraising in 2015, the cafeteria reboot and the new coffee shop, have been fully funded, allowing the attention of fundraising to shift its focus to other menu items.

“Two very large projects like this draw a lot of your attention and kind of keep information channels pretty drowned out because there’s not a lot to say, you’re always working on the same thing and the updates are that we’re still working,” Blanchard said. “Now we’re going to have a lot more variety and a lot of things to talk about as far as where the cafeteria and coffee shop are and things like that.”

Cafeteria Reboot and Coffee Shop

In 2014, students voted for $275,000 to be allocated toward the campus cafeteria reboot in an effort to jumpstart the renovation. An additional $1 million pledge from the Mabee Foundation on top of other donations completed the fundraising for these projects.

Of the two projects, Blanchard said the coffee shop would likely begin construction in the summer to be completed for the fall semester.

“We don’t build anything until we have the money,” Blanchard said. “When we raise money, we raise it in both gifts and pledges. The coffee shop, we have the cash, so that’s not going to be a problem. The only real factors are going to be scheduling with various activities in the Mabee Center – which happen all year long, even during the summer.”

The plan is to convert the old executive offices on the second floor of the Mabee Learning Center into the coffee shop to have the space in a central campus location. Positioned next to the Spiritual Life offices, the recently renovated Student Success offices and the Department of Language and Literature, “the space will be a magnet for student traffic.” Current plans are tentative to what the space might look like upon completion.

The south wall of the two-story atrium will remain all glass, giving shop-goers a view of Scott Chapel and the Gaylord Forum. The written proposal for the coffee shop states: “As the University hopes many conversations in this new coffee shop will revolve around both academic matters and matters of the spirit, it’s a wonderful serendipity that everyone’s gaze will be on OC’s core for Biblical studies.”

Blanchard said that the cafeteria remodel would not begin construction until all of the pledged money was physically at the university’s disposal.

“Several of these pledges are going to be coming in over the course of a couple of years,” Blanchard said. “And then the cafeteria would begin construction probably sometime next calendar year and it takes about a year to 14 months to build that cafeteria. I would think in the fall of 2018 would be the earliest that the cafeteria would open.”

The cafeteria remodel and new coffee shop projects were the biggest fundraising goals in the Thrive initiative.

“Both of these projects are really, really exciting, especially the coffee shop because it’s something I think we can see inside the next year,” Blanchard said. “And I really like coffee, so it’s a winner.”

With the funds raised for the cafeteria reboot and the coffee shop, focus for fundraising will move toward other menu items, according to Blanchard.

Nursing and Business Administration Initiatives

“Those have been our biggest focus areas for the year so far and have taken our attention away from other things on the menu,” Blanchard said. “So, you’ll see us start turning our attention toward the nursing building in Heritage Plaza and that renovation, which we still have about $1.4 million left to raise. We’re going to be working hard on that with our hope of finishing that out in terms of gifts and pledges by the end of the school year.”

Other departments will also receive fundraising attention to help better train students for their future careers, according to Blanchard.

“Business administration we haven’t talked about as much and we’ll start talking about that more,” Blanchard said. “Dr. Jeff Simmons, who’s dean of the business college, is working on a proposal for finance labs, which will give students a kind of trading-floor experience.”

The proposed space will include a stock-ticker and live computer consoles for students to make trades and purchases in real time within the stock market.

“Several universities utilize a lab like that and it would be kind of a major boon to this program, so we’re working on a proposal for that right now,” Blanchard said.

Art and Design Fundraising Item Coming Soon

“Peek behind the curtain, we also have a project that’s going to be coming online for Gaming and Animation that is some lab space for them and we’ve already got some early funding there,” Blanchard said. “That will be showing up on the menu here in a few weeks.”

The Princeton Review has listed Oklahoma Christian University’s gaming and animation program, under Director of Gaming and Animation Jeff Price, as one of the best in the country.

“It’s a hot area right now in a lot of fields,” Blanchard said. “There’s a lot of new technology in that area, so it’s primed for growth.”

Blanchard said the fundraising project will provide more space for students by expanding the lab to facilitate the gaming and animation majors alongside other students who utilize the current space.

“Now, those students are relegated to those small labs on the northeast corner of Garvey and they just need more space,” Blanchard said. “We’re expanding that and also trying to add some new software and things like that for students so that they really have a greater in-depth experience on computer animation and game design.”

Price, John Hermes, vice president of Information Technology Services, and Executive Vice President Bill Goad created the design of the new lab space, according to Blanchard.

Hartman Place Completion

Although the construction north of the Mabee Learning Center only began in October, it will be the first project done in 2016, according to Jerrod Dean, president of HortiCare Landscape Management.

The outdoor pavilion area, Hartman Place, has been named in celebration of Missionaries in Residence Kent and Nancy Hartman and their family, including Dale and Sheila Hartman and Luke and Kate Hartman.

“The Hartman family has had a big impact in missions, of course, and on campus for decades,” Blanchard said. “They have been big donors to the project as well, so it’s in honor of them.”

Dean said Hartman Place would be completed in February, weather permitting.

Future Developments

Blanchard said the ultimate goal for the Thrive initiative is to complete all of the projects they set out to in the beginning.

“At the end of the day, we don’t consider it a success until we finish the projects,” Blanchard said. “So we can raise $35 million, but if we don’t finish the projects we set out to, I don’t consider it a success.”

Updates on the completion of Thrive projects will become more frequent, according to Blanchard.

“I’m hopeful that you’ll hear a lot more about what’s happening in Thrive in the next few months,” Blanchard said.