1967 Graduates Dave and Suzanne Hoover Make $25 Million Gift to Fund New Dining Hall and Need-Based Scholarships
October 4, 2012
President Brian W. Casey today announced that DePauw University has received a $25 million gift from R. David and Suzanne A. Hoover (both 1967 graduates of DePauw) to help build a new dining hall and endow need-based scholarships.
The majority of the $25 million will provide the lead gift for the construction of the R. David and Suzanne A. Hoover Hall, to be located in the heart of campus between the Union Building and Burkhart Walk. The remainder of the gift will provide $9 million to support the R. David and Suzanne A. Hoover Endowed Scholarship Fund for need-based financial aid.
“Our time at DePauw prepared us in ways we never could have imagined when we first stepped on campus,” said Dave and Suzanne Hoover. “We have gained so much from this place and from the people who have made it their home. This is our opportunity to further strengthen a college that has meant so much to us, and we hope it encourages others to step forward to support the extraordinary education provided on this campus.” (at left: aerial view of rendering of campus plan, looking north from the Green Center; below is a cropped image spotlighting Hoover Hall)
The new hall will fulfill a core element of the University’s Campus Master Plan, which was approved by the Board of Trustees in October of 2010 and called for the transformation of the campus core into a place of greater connection, contemplation, and creativity. Hoover Hall will replace the current “Hub,” a food- court-style dining hall that was originally intended to serve 350 students and now must accommodate more than 1,000 DePauw students daily. The new hall will serve as the primary dining space for first- year students and upper-class students living in University housing.
“On behalf the students, faculty and alumni of DePauw University, I extend my deepest gratitude to Dave and Suzanne for this gift, and for what it will mean to this campus,” said President Brian W. Casey. “Their love for DePauw is palpable and their passion for its future is unmatched. Their legacy on this campus will forever be one marked by a commitment to students of DePauw.”
In strengthening the Hoover Endowed Scholarship Fund for need-based scholarships, the Hoovers will reinforce an institutional legacy of access, a tradition established in the University’s founding charter, which called for the University to benefit the youth of “every class of citizen.” Their gift will support the University’s goal of ensuring that generations of students -- regardless of their family’s financial means -- will be able to attend DePauw.
“Dave and Suzanne represent the very best of DePauw,” said Sarah R. Wallace ‘76, chair of the University’s Board of Trustees. “As loyal alumni and philanthropists, they have been constant advocates for their alma mater. I am deeply grateful for their friendship and am moved by their dedication to this University. One simply cannot overstate the significance of the Hoovers’ commitment to DePauw.”
In addition to new dining spaces within Hoover Hall, additional fundraising efforts -- to take place in the coming months -- will provide the funds for a faculty dining room within Hoover Hall and for new meeting spaces for smaller gatherings of students and faculty. Funds will also be sought to renovate and enhance spaces dedicated to student services and advising within the Memorial Student Union Building, which is now home to a merged office of professional advisors supporting off-campus study, Winter Term, career services and community service activities.
Dave Hoover, a past chair of the University’s Board of Trustees, serves as the chairman of the board of the Ball Corporation. He also serves on the boards of Eli Lilly and Company, Energizer Holdings, Inc. and Steelcase Inc. and is a director of Boulder Community Hospital and Children’s Hospital Colorado. In addition to receiving a bachelor’s degree in economics from DePauw, he was awarded an M.B.A. in finance and real estate from Indiana University and completed the Advanced Management Program at the Harvard University Graduate School of Business.
Suzanne Hoover, a former teacher and president of the Muncie Community School Corporation Board of Directors, received a bachelor’s degree in history from DePauw and an M.S. in secondary education from Indiana University. She currently serves on the board of trustees for the University of Colorado Foundation, as an advisory board member for the University of Colorado School of Music and the President’s Leadership Class, and as a member of the development board for the University of Colorado’s School of Education. She also serves as a director for Via Mobility, a Colorado non-profit organization. Continuing her commitment to education, she has served as a board member and president of Impact on Education, a Boulder-based education advocacy organization benefitting the Boulder Valley School District.