$300K given to student centre
Justin Chiu makes another big gift to Trent University
Trent University’s Student Centre has received a donation of $300,000 from alumnus and Trent supporter Justin Chiu.
The $16-million Student Centre is under construction on the main Symons campus at Trent. It’s expected open in September.
Chiu is the same alumnus who donated $1 million in 2011 toward construction of a stadium (the Justin Chiu Stadium), among other donations he’s made to the university.
Chiu is a property developer in his native Hong Kong. He grad- uated from Trent in 1978 with a joint degree in sociology and economics.
In a press release, Chiu stated that he chose to come to Canada and study at Trent University because he and his family felt that Trent “would provide an excellent education on a very personal scale.”
“Today, that human touch remains a very personal part of the Trent student experience,” he stated.
Construction of the Student Centre is nearing completion. The building is located between the Bata Library and the sports complex, and it is meant as a place for students to gather, study and socialize.
The release from Trent states that the gift from Chiu means the university has $250,000 left to collect in its fundraising campaign (the total goal of the campaign is $4 million).
The rest of the cost to build the Student Centre is expected to be covered by a student levy and by other funders.
Construction has been underway for more than a year, following a design by Teeple Architects Inc. of Toronto.
The same firm designed two other buildings on campus: the Trent Child Care Centre (1993) and the Chemical Sciences Complex (2004).
The firm won a Governor General’s Medal for architecture for each of those two buildings at Trent.
Teeple Architects has already designed 24 buildings for university campuses, including several student centres.