Central College is using a more than $700,000 donation from the Fred Maytag Family Foundation for facility renovations and new offerings aimed at supporting students and bringing campus and community closer together.
The Pella private university announced this week in a news release it received a $720,000 gift from the foundation this summer. Hilary Rowe, Central College director of marketing and communications, said in an email $50,000 has gone to the Journey Scholarship Fund, with the rest funding renovations to the building sharing the foundation’s namesake — the Maytag Student Center.
Rowe said in her email the foundation has supported Central for nearly a century, funding a full tuition scholarship and other financial aid, STEM initiatives and and other capital projects.
“Central has a very special relationship with the Maytag family,” Central College President Mark Putnam said in the release. “They still feel a strong sense of connection to Iowa and Central. Ken and Fritz Maytag have been committed to this building. Their values align closely with ours — with what Central wants to achieve in the world and who we are in the world.”
Much of the renovation work funded by the donation has already been completed, Rowe said in her email, with new amenities now available for students. The Maytag Student Center now houses the Maytag Marketplace, which includes a redesigned food and convenience store, the university’s Spirit Shoppe, temporary vendor spaces and areas for “public engagement.”
Putnam said in the release new technology will be added to certain rooms in the student center in the future through the donation, and lounge spaces will receive new finishes, seating and carpeting.
Iwan Williams, Central College executive director of retail management, said in the release the university used a student survey to learn what they would buy from a campus store if one was available, and from those responses, a “convenience store model” was developed. Now students can buy hot food, various beverages and more from the space in addition to grab-and-go food.
The marketplace’s new “pop-up vendor window” brings in local businesses to sell wares on campus, Williams said in the release, and has already seen success from Top Shelf Nutrition, which recently utilized the space.
As the marketplace is open to the public, Williams said in the release he expects groups like summer camps held on campus, as well as members of the community, to benefit from it. The space also fits into the college’s “Imagine More: It’s Central to Pella” initiative, which seeks to bring campus and community closer together through strategic partnerships and projects, both off and on campus.
“We’re drawing in local and specialty businesses that appeal to students and employees,” Williams said in the release. “It’s a manifestation of the Imagine More concept created here in the Maytag Marketplace. What we see right now is just the beginning.”
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This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Central College renovates student center with $720,000 donation
Reporting by Brooklyn Draisey, Iowa Capital Dispatch / Des Moines Register
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