By Wojtek Dabrowski
If you have an extra $15 million kicking around, you might want to consider having the new Centre for Computing and Engineering named after yourself.
That’s the pricetag Ryerson is putting on the crowning jewel in its SuperBuild construction spree.
The university expects to raise $25 million from corporate and individual donations to help finance the $65 million centre.
Virtually every classroom, lab, conference room and research office is up for sale under the Naming Opportunities program.
The building itself is the most expensive at $15 million. The cheapest is a slew of conference rooms and grad students’ research offices, which run at $100,000 apiece.
The building’s main floor, which includes the main 380-seat lecture theatre and four smaller ones, can bear your name for just $5 million. Some of the more sophisticated labs, such as the aerospace structures and materials laboratory, run $500,000 each.
Gordon Cressy, vice-president of university advancement, said that the school is seeking individual donors rather than large corporations to pony up the cash.
“A big gift for every corporation is $1 million given over five years,” he said. “So most large things are named after individuals.”
Cressy said that some corporations Ryerson will be canvassing for funding include engineering giant Bombardier Inc., high-tech manufacturer Celestica Inc., Ontario Power Generation and computer powerhouses IBM and Hewlett Packard Co.
But with the stock market in the doldrums, corporations and even some individuals may be more reluctant to hand over money.
“If someone had recently gotten wealthy in the high-tech sector, today, they wouldn’t be giving,” Cressy said.
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