Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 13, 1990                   TAG: 9003133556
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DANIEL HOWES HIGHER EDUCATION WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ROANOKE COLLEGE MEETS FUND-RAISING GOAL FOR LIBRARY

The expansion, which was spurred by a $3 million gift from an anonymous Roanoke Valley donor, is the largest single capital project ever undertaken by the 148-year-old college. Construction already is under way.

In a news conference Monday attended by the Fintels, first-year President David Gring pronounced the campaign over after only 13 months, and said that $5.25 million had been pledged by Roanoke Valley residents.

"This community should never forget that this project is about more than buildings and it is about more than large sums of money. It is about people," Gring said. "It is about generations of students who will use this uncompromised resource . . . and it is about the residents of this community who made it all possible."

Gifts to build the library came from alumni, the college's board of trustees, Roanoke-area businesses and residents and a $500,000 challenge grant from the Kresge Foundation of Troy, Mich. The grant required alumni and other supporters to raise $3,456,323 by this month in order to receive the $500,000.

Nine years ago, an accreditation team had criticized the college's library, which was "stealing student study spaces to put in more books," Fintel said Monday. Plans to expand the building were drafted, shelved for lack of money, then resurrected in 1986.

The library was designed to house 125,000 volumes and serve 900 students. It holds more than 150,000 volumes and serves more than 1,500 students.

In January 1989, Fintel and board Chairman John Turbyfill - aware the college was due for another accreditation visit in 1991 - announced plans to expand the library and the fund-raising campaign to pay for it. Within three months, two-thirds of the goal had been met.

When a Roanoke Valley philanthropist came forward with a $3 million gift for the library, the college's first inclination was to rename the building after the donor.

But the anonymous donor had other ideas, and insisted the new building be named after the retiring president and his wife.

"It's a little overwhelming. We didn't plan it that way," Fintel said, his wife by his side. "In fact, I always said I didn't want a building named after me. It's nice that they did both of us. We were partners the whole time."

The new library will have space for more than 300,000 volumes, house state-of-the-art media services and an audiovisual classroom and have seven study rooms. There are no study rooms now.