Welcome gift
Cambridge firm pledges $4M to Conestoga College to help complete expansion
WATERLOO — Four-million dollars is a lot of money.
“This is big,” said Conestoga College president John Tibbits on Tuesday as the Cowan Foundation announced a pledge of $4 million to help the college complete a $52-million expansion and renovation of its Waterloo campus on University Avenue.
“Colleges in general don’t have a long history of fundraising. This is the largest single cash donation we’ve ever received. So we’re very excited about it.”
Large equipment donations are the norm for Conestoga.
The Cowan Foundation, the charitable wing of Cambridgebased Princeton Holdings and the Cowan Insurance Group, have also contributed to Conestoga’s Welcome Centre and Cowan Health Sciences Centre on the Doon Campus over the last 15 years.
The health sciences centre contribution was valued at more than $2 million.
“Past experience has shown us the positive impact of an investment in Conestoga College,” said foundation board chair Maureen Cowan in a media release.
But the $4-million donation takes the cake.
“This is, by far, their biggest one,” Tibbits said.
So as new campus structures rise around the college-owned remnants of what used to be University Heights Secondary School, Tibbits is already pondering a quadrupling of the current 300-400 enrolment for culinary and hospitality programs there within five years.
The bulk of the new space, featuring an extra 150,000 square feet and showcase kitchens facing out onto University Avenue, is expected to be ready for students by next fall.
The rest of the work aims for 2019 or 2020.
Until then, 700 post-secondary and 2,500 apprenticeship students continue their studies amid all the construction.
Ten months ago, the Waterloo campus project was tabbed at $43.5-million. Now, Tibbits expects the bill to come in about $8 million higher.
“It’s not because we’re over budget,” he said. “It became clearer and clearer that demand is so great, that we made it a bigger project.”
Tibbits said Conestoga is up to 3,400 international students with 25,000 applications from international students this year. The expanded Waterloo campus will allow Conestoga to move language instruction for newcomers to Canada from rented Lincoln Road facilities.
Information technology programs will move to Waterloo from the Doon campus.
And Conestoga’s image along University Avenue — in the fundraising shadows of Waterloo and Laurier universities — will get a boost as space for another 3,000 students is created. A college fundraising campaign https://transforming-together.conestogac.on.ca aiming to collect $25 million has begun.
The federal government is kicking in $14 million for the project. The province is pitching in $1.8 million. The Cowan gift and some smaller unannounced donations may account for another $8 million to $9 million, Tibbits said.
Tibbits hopes news of the foundation’s gift will have a positive impact on other potential donors.
“Hopefully, some people read your article,” Tibbits said. “Maybe a couple people might phone me up and say, ‘Look, we’d like to do something too.’ ”