(April 23, 2008) — Bellarmine University President Joseph J. McGowan announced today the Louisville school has received a $2.5 million gift from the family of Nolen and Maydie Allen. The gift ranks as the second largest single contribution in school history.
The Allens’ gift establishes an endowment that will benefit several initiatives including the construction of a Bellarmine Graduate School of Business, one of the key initiatives set forth in Vision 2020.
“For Bellarmine to be successful in attaining the goals of Vision 2020, we will rely heavily on extraordinary generosity and visionary support from our good friends like Maydie and Nolen Allen,” said McGowan. “We are most appreciative of this recent gift and for their support over the past 50 years.”
“We have a long history with Bellarmine, and helping to guarantee its growth and future is something we see as not only a service to the school but as a service to the entire community and region,” said Mr. Allen. “For five decades now Bellarmine has been helping supply the Louisville workforce with outstanding employees. The university’s Vision 2020 plan will continue to make Bellarmine crucial to the community’s success.”
Mr. Allen, who is a founding partner in the accounting firm Cotton and Allen, began his association with Bellarmine in 1956 when he began teaching tax and accounting courses. He joined the Board of Overseers in 1986 and was elected to the Board of Trustees in 1988 and still serves as a trustee to this day. His work for Bellarmine has been so important that he has garnered two of the Bellarmine’s biggest honors. In 2002, he was named a Bellarmine “Knight,” and in 2006 he was awarded an honorary doctorate.
Bellarmine’s institutional vision for progress over the next 15 years, Vision 2020, calls for tripling enrollment, doubling the campus facilities and increasing the number of schools. Since announcing Vision 2020 two years ago, Bellarmine has:
> recruited its largest ever freshman class (eclipsing the former largest class by over 30 percent), and one of its best academically qualified.
> opened a new 116-bed residence hall and begun construction on a second new residence hall for 146 beds, scheduled to open in January 2009.
> unveiled a state-of-the-art multi-sport field and stadium.
> re-routed campus traffic with a new cross campus road and a new entrance at the campus’s main intersection.
> launched the new Institute for Media, Culture and Ethics in advance of opening a new School of Communication, Media an Culture in 2009.
> added a new master’s degree in communication and is adding a new Sports Studies minor, a new Doctorate in Nursing Practice and an Institute of Health and Wellness that will include a concentration in exercise science and athletic training.
> positioned Bellarmine’s Annsley Frazier Thornton School of Education as a national model for the future of teacher education in America, and recently announced the appointment of internationally-known literacy expert Robert Cooter as the Ursuline Endowed Chair of Teacher Education and Kathy Cooter as director of the school’s new center for teachers.
> continued to earned recognition from national publications and other independent organizations: “A First Tier (of four) comprehensive university in the South,” U.S. News and World Report; “One of the best 366 Colleges,” The Princeton Review;
“One of the Best Places to Work in Kentucky,” The Kentucky Society of Human Resource Management and the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce.