Philanthropist and alumna Rita McGinley gives Carlow University $5 million
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In this 2001 photo, Rita McGinley, at left, joins Suzie McConnell Serio and Valerie McDonald at the Carlow College Women of Spirit Gala at the Westin Convention Center.
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A Pittsburgh philanthropist has bestowed her alma mater, Carlow University, with the largest gift it has ever received: $5 million to establish a new student center.
Rita M. McGinley -- a class of 1940 alumna in biology, minority owner of the Steelers, Carlow Woman of Spirit and former educator in the General Braddock and Woodland Hills school districts -- said she gave the gift to allow people to have the same positive experience she had at the university.
School officials said the gift will create the Rita M. McGinley Center for Student Success, a portion of a larger project to renovate four of the Grace Library's five floors.
"It's part of a whole learning commons concept," said Margaret McLaughlin, provost and vice president for academic affairs. "What we're trying to do at one level is consolidate all of our learning support services for students into one locality so that we have more seamless interaction for the students' sake."
Services that will be housed in the center include Carlow's Center for Academic Achievement, the Learning Laboratory for Math Education, the Service Learning Center, the Mercy Center for Service, the Center for Global Studies, the Center for Faculty Excellence and Academic Advising.
"There's a lot of new research about how people learn, and that has to drive a rethinking about how we engage their learning," she said.
Ms. McLaughlin said the overall library renovation won't increase the building's foundational footprint and the space will instead be repurposed, in part by reducing print material and increasing digital offerings. "It really enables us to take advantage of the digital age to improve student learning," she said.
The initial stage of the library renovation, which is still being planned and will require additional funding beyond Ms. McGinley's donation, will begin this summer.
Rachel Blonski, president of the university's Student Government Association, said that although she will graduate before she can experience the fruits of the new center, it's encouraging for students to see alumni giving back.
"I think it's a really great gift for the entire university," Ms. Blonski, 21, said. "Gifts like this really help us out because it will lead to the formation of a unified student area on campus."
The biology major said gifts, such as Ms. McGinley's, inspire her to want to give back to her alma mater one day as well.
Carlow isn't the only university in the region that has benefitted from Ms. McGinley's generosity.
She is the namesake of the Rita M. McGinley Chair in Early Learning and Children's Media at the Fred Rogers Center at Saint Vincent College and the annual Rita M. McGinley Symposium at Duquesne University.
Before her recent gift, the largest donation Carlow had received was $1.5 million from alumna Michele Rehfeld Atkins, president and CEO of Heritage Community Initiatives in Braddock.
The gift, which was awarded in May, endowed a chair for ethics across the curriculum.
First Published February 7, 2012 12:00 am
