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Academic
complex project moves forward with $5.5 million gift
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Nelnet executive David Byrnes ’72 and his wife,
Elizabeth, say their commitment to Monmouth College was a gift of
gratitude. |
Monmouth College has received a $5.5 million gift focused
primarily on the construction of a new academic complex that
will bring together both the sciences and business in a novel
teaching and learning facility, President Mauri Ditzler
announced today.
David J. Byrnes, a 1972 MC graduate, told the board of trustees
at a recent planning session that he and his wife, Elizabeth,
decided to make the gift in gratitude for the college’s
influence on his own successful career and in expectation that
the new facility will help future generations of students
succeed in their careers.
A biology major who never took a business course at Monmouth,
but went on to found a successful automated tuition management
company for private colleges and private and parochial K-12
schools, Byrnes said he is excited about the prospect of the
sciences and business sharing the same facility on the Monmouth
campus. “Business is increasingly relying on science and
technology to maintain profitability, while at the same time,
the sciences must develop good business models in order to be
able to secure private funding,” he explained. “Bringing these
two traditionally separate disciplines together will encourage
new ways of looking at the world’s problems and developing
creative solutions.”
Byrnes, 56, serves as vice chair of the college’s board of
trustees and is CEO of Nelnet Business Solutions and Nelnet
Enrollment Solutions, both divisions of Nelnet, Inc., an
education planning and finance company based in Lincoln, Neb. In
2005, Nelnet acquired FACTS Management, a company that Byrnes
co-founded in 1986. FACTS is the nation’s largest provider of
tuition payment plans for both the private K-12 and
post-secondary markets and also provides financial needs
analysis, enrollment management and fund raising solutions.
“As a professional who works daily with colleges like Monmouth,
David has an appreciation for the important work that liberal
arts colleges do,” said President Mauri Ditzler. “This gift
demonstrates not only great generosity, but also great vision
for what an innovative building like this can mean for
Monmouth.”
Although Byrnes and his wife previously provided the naming gift
for the educational wing of the Huff Athletic Center and endowed
two scholarships, he admits he initially felt uncomfortable
making a public announcement of their recent gift. “The decision
to make this gift was a very personal one,” he noted. “I was the
first person in my family to attend college and my years at
Monmouth were the seminal period in my life. As a Christian
family, we view the gift as a way of also honoring God for His
many blessings.”
Byrnes explained, however, that the examples set earlier by such
veteran trustees as Walter Huff, David Bowers (who provided the
naming gift for Bowers Hall), Safford Peacock (whose gift
created Peacock Athletic Park), Maxine Trotter (donor of a
fitness complex and computer lab) and others inspired him to
come forward. “I hope the gift will help draw attention to this
important project and provide momentum,” he explained.
Growing up as the oldest of five siblings in Springfield, Mass.,
Byrnes said his childhood was often difficult. When Monmouth
College offered him the opportunity to come to the Midwest,
enroll in a pre-med program and play sports, he jumped at the
chance. But it wasn’t easy. To help meet expenses, he began
working long hours performing analytical work in the laboratory
of Monmouth’s Wells Pet Food plant, not only during the academic
year but in the summer months as well. When family financial
circumstances forced him to return to Massachusetts during his
sophomore year, biology professor Milton Bowman made special
arrangements for Byrnes to continue his studies and eventually
return to Monmouth College.
“Monmouth was very good to me,” Byrnes said. “Without the help
of people like Milt Bowman, I wouldn’t have been able to get my
degree.” In memory of Bowman, Byrnes in 2002 established a
scholarship for financially-needy MC biology students. “One of
Monmouth’s greatest attributes is the strong sense of family,”
he said. “Giving back to the college is not something you feel
obligated to do. It’s something you really want to do.”
The Byrnes’ gift is the second largest in the college’s history.
In 2001, alumnus Walter Huff provided a $10 million naming gift
for MC’s new athletic center, in memory of his late wife, with
whom he had made an earlier gift of $5 million in 1983.
After graduating from Monmouth, Byrnes went on to earn a
master’s degree in botany and worked for an environmental
consulting company and an electric power company before becoming
a private consultant. A conversation with a friend 20 years ago
about the difficulty private schools were having collecting
tuition led to the founding—in his basement—of FACTS Management,
which later pioneered the use of electronic funds transfer for
budgeted tuition payments and helped create a new paradigm for
best business practices in private and parochial schools.
Having demonstrated a capacity to “think outside the box,”
Byrnes is not at a loss for innovative ideas about how the new
academic complex might be used. “I can envision learning centers
being established outside the classrooms in which science and
business students and faculty could interact regularly and
exchange ideas,” he said. “I’d also like to see alumni who are
successful scientists or CEOs come back to campus and establish
residencies for three or four weeks to truly engage students on
the issues of the day.”
Beyond the academic benefits the complex would provide, Byrnes
views the concept itself as being important to the kind of
strategies small liberal arts colleges must adopt to remain
competitive in the education marketplace. “With the emergence of
online education and other new forms of competition, colleges
like Monmouth will be increasingly challenged to justify their
price tags,” he explained. “A building like this and the
bringing together of science and business in a purposeful way
represents a great value proposition. The experience students
will receive here will be truly special. It will open new doors
for them.”
Monmouth College earlier announced a $1 million gift from the
Mellinger Educational Foundation, which is currently being
employed to develop the concept for the 140,000-square-foot
facility. Estimated to cost in excess of $40 million, the
building is being designed by the international design firm Burt
Hill, which has won numerous awards for its innovative and
flexible academic buildings.
February 16, 2007 |
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