Keith Busse, chairman and CEO of Steel Dynamics Inc., has given an undisclosed amount to the campus to build the center on Paul Shaffer Drive across from the Holiday Inn.
"I am thankful for the benefits of my IPFW education, and I am thankful to have had the opportunity to stay involved and continue that relationship with the university over the years," Busse said in a news release. "I am pleased that the campus will now have an alumni center to celebrate alumni and provide them with a place to reconnect and enjoy campus events."
Design plans are still being finalized, but the center should be completed by next summer, according to Walt Branson, vice chancellor for financial affairs.
"For a campus our size, it's really an important facility to keep the alumni connected to the campus," Branson said.
Linda Ruffolo, executive director of development, said the center is especially important to the local community because of 45,000 alumni, more than 80 percent live in the area.
"We have an increasingly larger alumni base ... and they really need a meeting place," she said.
The Keith Busse Steel Dynamics Alumni Center will cater to IPFW alumni and their guests with space for meetings and gatherings that will include audio-visual displays "to entertain and inform," according to the release. It will also house the alumni director and all administrative functions of the alumni relations office, according to the release. "It's a wonderful legacy to leave to the whole community," Ruffolo said.
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