There is always a place for the past in Susquehanna’s future.

That was the underlying message as Susquehannans young and old took turns placing items in a time capsule that will go behind the cornerstone of the new $33 million science building, now under construction and scheduled to open in fall 2010.

The ceremony took place in front of Fisher Hall on Oct. 4 during Homecoming Reunion Weekend and was attended by current students, faculty and staff—as well as alumni, retired faculty and staff, friends, community members and government officials.

Together, they blended the story of science at Susquehanna with its 150-year history, even while a next chapter was being written just across University Avenue.

Groundbreaking for the new science building occurred Aug. 26, less than a month after Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell presented the university with $4 million through the commonwealth’s Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program to help fund it. The grant, along with generous gifts from donors such as the Degenstein Foundation and the Richard King Mellon Foundation, has helped construction move along quickly. It has also led the university to raise its campaign goal for the building from $15 million to $20 million.

During the ceremony, state Rep. Russ Fairchild announced an additional $500,000 for the project, saying, “I think the building that we are watching take shape before our eyes is going to be the infrastructure that allows these students to mature, to learn their trade, to go out into the world and lead us and lead others.”

As President L. Jay Lemons noted, relationships between public funding and high-quality private institutions like Susquehanna have become increasingly important to economic development. That relationship was underscored by the participation of U.S. Rep. Chris Carney and Kim Bierly, a representative for U.S. Sen. Robert P. Casey, in the event.

“The momentum is truly in our favor,” said trustee Barry Jackson ’68, thanking Fairchild and donors.

For Samantha Price ’12, the attractive architectural renderings of the new building are more than pretty pictures. By the time she’s a senior, the concrete and steel in the former North Hall parking lot will have grown into a modern, environmentally friendly facility with 19 teaching and research labs, 30 prep and support spaces and a rooftop greenhouse. She told the audience that knowing she would have the chance to work in the new building was an important factor in her decision to come to Susquehanna.

Others who participated were Trustee Dawn Mueller ’68; Dottie Anderson ’62, former dean of student life; Amy Fortier ’98; Ryan Szuch ’00; Ellen Mull ’04 Berger; Jenna Fredericks ’06, coordinator of student life for student conduct; Ruthie Potter ’93 and Ben Potter, son of the late Professor of Chemistry Neil Potter; Kenneth Brakke, professor and head of the Department of Mathematics; T. Wade Johnson, assistant professor of chemistry; Ahmed Lachhab, assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences; Sara Kirkland, executive vice president for administration and planning; Edmond Clarke, director of corporate and foundation support; Michael Coyne, treasurer and vice president for finance; and emeritus faculty members George Boone, Rany Harrison, Tom McGrath and Cyril Stretansky.

Don Housley, university historian and emeritus professor of history, also spoke on the occasion.
“At Susquehanna, the importance of science instruction was noted early,” said Housley, relating how in 1862 the third president obtained chemistry equipment, an air pump, an electric machine, and a pair of globes—all for $100.

A Cornerstone of Education

Future Susquehanna historians will no doubt enjoy opening the time capsule in 2058. Its contents range from a scientific calculator to a pair of flip-flops—each carrying its own interest or symbolism.

The disciplines that will be taught in the building also hold a special significance. “Science at Susquehanna is a cornerstone unto itself,” said Lemons. “The new building will allow our students to continue to work alongside our talented teacher-scholars to create knowledge, to explore areas of interest in that unending journey of discovery.”

A few of these students—Ashley Evanoski ’09, Michelle Siegel ’09 and Stephen Maganzini ’11—unveiled the physical cornerstone, which directs future Susquehannans to the time capsule that will rest beneath it.

Fisher Hall, the current home of the sciences, will remain an integral part of Susquehanna for years to come. “This is still a great building. It will be a great building into the future,” said Lemons.

Faculty and staff have raised more than $1.8 million for the Changing Lives, Building Futures campaign. The campus community supported many areas of the campaign, including the new science facility and the New Horizons Scholarship, a fund that supports students seeking cross-cultural learning opportunities. Since February when the official solicitation phase of the campus campaign began, 66 percent of faculty and staff have pledged their support.
“The support of the campus community is extremely important. It proves their belief in the campaign and our community enough to invest in it, beyond the investment of time and dedication they make on this campus every day,” says Joanne Troutman, director of the Susquehanna University Fund, which oversaw the campus campaign.
Troutman says the six co-chairs—Jeff Schreffler, chief plumber; Catherine Hastings, associate professor of communications; Pamela Wolfe, senior technical assistant for financial aid; Rebecca Wilson, associate professor and associate director of the Blough-Weis Library; Erica Weaver ’00 Stephenson, associate director of residence life; and Thomas Peeler, associate professor of biology—and the two dozen volunteers that worked with them were the keys to the campaign’s success.
“Without their hard work and dedication, we could have never surpassed our goal of raising $1.25 million,” she says.

Education has the power to change lives. A cliché, maybe, but also an undeniable truth. Just ask a few of Susquehanna’s talented scholarship recipients.

Business major DaJuan Porter ’11, of Harrisburg, Pa., says that scholarships like his are “moving mountains that some students just can’t climb on their own.”

He is the first recipient of a scholarship that David ’79 and Ellen Schmidt ’79 Odenath started in order to help draw exceptional students of diverse backgrounds to the Sigmund Weis School of Business. It is Susquehanna’s first and only full-tuition scholarship supported by donors.

“If it weren’t for the Odenaths, I wouldn’t be here,” says Porter.

And Porter has begun to establish himself at SU. After only a few months at the university, he has been elected to the student government, created a page on Facebook (the social networking Web site) to unify Susquehanna students against racism, and hosts a radio show on WQSU.

“DaJuan has made a positive impression on so many of the people he’s met here,” says Alicia Jackson, dean of the business school. “He seems to be exactly the type of student the Odenaths had in mind.”

A priority of the Changing Lives, Building Futures campaign is to secure gift funding for student financial aid. Donors have contributed nearly $13 million in campaign gifts and grants toward scholarship endowment, creating an earned-income stream that generates aid awards. Donors have also stepped up to establish annually funded scholarships with four-year gift commitments starting at $20,000 ($5,000 a year) that help one or more students from freshman through senior year.

“Many of these donors are also Susquehanna graduates,” says Ron Cohen, vice president for university relations. “They themselves received financial aid, or the important people in their lives whom they met at Susquehanna—spouses to in-laws to friends—were only able to be there because they received financial aid. So the understanding that ‘someone was doing this for me while I was at Susquehanna’ resonates and moves donors similarly.”

History major Sarah Myers ’12, of New Oxford, Pa., is another example of a student who wouldn’t be at Susquehanna without a scholarship. In addition to being unsure of how she would pay for school, neither of her parents went to college, so the search process was entirely new. However, Sarah’s parents encouraged her to “think big.” And she did.
“Between middle and high school, my career aspirations changed a lot. I wanted to be a kindergarten teacher, a gemologist, an architect, a home economics teacher, an orthodontist and a history professor,” laughs Myers. And that last choice proved to be an important one.
She put Susquehanna on her list of considerations, even though she knew that paying for a private college would be a challenge. But thanks largely to a scholarship for history majors funded by W. Talbot “Tal” Daley ’76, Myers, the valedictorian of her high school class, was able to attend Susquehanna. She’s taking full advantage of the opportunity, too. In addition to her studies, she’s participating in International Club, Swing Dance Club and SU Democrats.

A history major who points to Professor Emeritus of History and University Historian Don Housley as a life-changing individual, Daley is a senior executive with the investment firm Legg Mason in Baltimore. He established the scholarship as a way of underscoring the value of his own liberal arts education and its lasting impact.

Scholarships do more than just help individual students. They also create a diversity of thought and experience that benefits the entire student body.

In recent years, perhaps no one student has brought more diversity of experience to campus than finance major Mouluddin Rahimi ’10.
Originally from Afghanistan, Rahimi and his family were driven from their homes by the Taliban and forced to live in a refugee camp in Pakistan. After serving as a translator for the U.S. Army, he was able to realize his dream of attending college in the United States, thanks in large part to a scholarship from Robert H. ’69 and Carol Scherb ’70 Ray that aims to support international students. From Carol’s experience as a high school exchange student in Australia to Bob’s two-year assignment in London with Moody’s, the Rays’ international experiences have shaped a worldview that appreciates differences in people, culture, and customs.

“Mouluddin comes from a very different way of seeing things,” says Helen Nunn, director of financial aid. “It’s an amazing opportunity for all of us in this community to know him and to know even some of what he’s been through.”

At Susquehanna, Rahimi has been president of the international students club, assisted the hurricane relief team, worked in the admissions office, served as a resident assistant and joined a service-oriented social fraternity.

He couldn’t be more grateful to the Rays for their scholarship and can’t wait to return the favor for future students. “My vision is that once I graduate and make enough to live by, I will give the rest to Susquehanna or to other universities that provide scholarships. It’s a means of building communities and helping others to reach their goals and aspirations.”

A Real Need

A large portion of Susquehanna’s financial aid currently comes from the operating budget, sapping resources that could be invested in academic and campus enhancements. Donors have recognized the need to create more scholarships for deserving students, passing on the gift of a Susquehanna education in a very personal way.