U.W. Announces $10 Million Gift For Gateway Center

The University of Wyoming announced a historic $10 million gift from philanthropist Marian Rochelle that will support the construction of a state-of-the art Gateway Center that will become the signature entrance facility to the university, connecting students, alumni and friends.“The Marian H. Rochelle Gateway Center is a culmination of my mother’s philanthropic gifting to the University of Wyoming,” says Rochelle’s daughter and fellow philanthropist, former state Sen. April Brimmer Kunz. Located on the corner of 22nd Street and Grand Avenue near War Memorial Stadium, the 60,000-plus-square-foot facility will be named the Marian H. Rochelle Gateway Center.

Plans for the Gateway Center project began in 2008 as part of the UW Foundation’s strategic plan and the university’s long-range development plan and has since expanded to encompass all of UW’s constituencies within a premier welcoming facility. In July 2011, President Tom Buchanan and the UW Board of Trustees assembled a university facilities planning team and charged them with the direction and leadership of this project. Among its members are constituents from across campus and UW Foundation Board members Frank Mendicino, Roy Cline, Mari Ann Martin, former Chair Greg Dyekman, current Chair Clayton Hartman, and Vice Chair Scott Neu. The Gateway Center will be funded completely through private support and UW Foundation reserve dollars and will be gifted to the university.

The project is a partnership among the UW Foundation, the Alumni Association, the Center for Advising and Career Services, and Admissions and will contain office and collaborative space for these units as they support and promote the university. The facility will be a multi-use location with a state-of-the-art technological infrastructure, small and large meeting rooms, and public and social event spaces. It will be a place for prospective students and families to enter the university, for gatherings of current students, for alumni to arrive and celebrate the history and traditions of their alma mater, for friends to participate in the university’s programs, and for corporations and organizations to interview and recruit UW students.