Departments
|
Week of 29 January 1999 |
Vol. II, No. 21 |
Feature
Article
Marsh Plaza restoration campaign gathers momentum
By Eric McHenry
The Marsh Plaza Renovation Project caught a tailwind earlier this month when campaign executive committee member Sharon Goode Ryan (SAR'70) and her husband, Bob, pledged up to 10 matching gifts for $10,000 contributions. Their challenge immediately elicited commitments from several trustees and administrators and is expected to be met in its entirety before long, which will put the campaign considerably closer to its target figure of $1.5 million.
|
|
|
The capital campaign is under way for a renovation project that will replace Marsh Plaza's crumbling bluestone with granite pavers and clean the Free at Last sculpture. Photo by Vernon Doucette |
The bluestone slabs on Daniel L. Marsh Plaza, named for the University's fourth president, have been ground to meal by 50 years of foot traffic, and Free at Last, the elegant sculpture honoring the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (GRS'55), is rust-stained at its base. The alumni-driven restoration effort, which has as its goal the dedication of a new and improved plaza at Homecoming 1999, was spurred by a $25,000 graduation gift from the class of 1994. A formal kickoff took place in September of last year with an appeal to all alumni for donations, which has to this point generated about $175,000. Including the Ryans' gesture, contributions to the project totaling roughly $400,000 are either in the University's coffers or on the way.
The restoration, which coincides with the plaza's semicentennial, will include new granite pavers for the plaza proper, fresh brick for the surrounding sidewalk, 18 granite bollards lining the square's southern border, and a thorough cleaning, weatherization, and reinstallation of Free at Last and the University Coat of Arms.
Often referred to as the "physical and spiritual center of Boston University," the plaza is shared by all members of the BU community. Similarly, responsibility for its improvement is being shared by alumni from many generations and colleges, fundraisers say. Lines of affiliation and demography, which are often meaningful in other capital campaigns, have been all but invisible in this one.
"We were optimistic that alumni would be very supportive regardless of their college or year of graduation," says Katherine Kennedy, regional major gifts officer, "because everybody has a special affinity for Marsh Plaza. This is a significant way for alumni, collectively, to take ownership of a cause. It's a unifying effort."
"We're getting contributions from alumni of all ages and all schools, and even from people who haven't donated to BU before," adds Ryan. "To me, this confirms that Marsh Plaza really does have special meaning as an enduring symbol of the campus and of the time alumni spent here."
It could hardly be more symbolically meaningful to William Hickey (COM'74, SMG'79), associate vice president for planning, budgeting, and information, and his wife, Betsy (COM'71). The two made their first date on the plaza and were married, two and a half years later, in Marsh Chapel. Recently, they reaffirmed the site's significance in their lives with a $10,000 pledge to the campaign. The chapel has provided the venue for some 2,500 weddings during the past half-century -- a statistic that cheers members of the renovation project's executive committee. Its prominence in the personal histories of so many alumni augurs well for the campaign.
"We've gotten a lot of personal correspondence along with the donations," says Gregory Ladd (CAS'84), executive director of alumni relations and a committee member. "People are enclosing pictures, letters full of anecdotes, stories about what Marsh Plaza has meant to them."
One needn't have been married there, Hickey points out, to feel a personal attachment to the location. Like many who attended BU at a time when civil rights issues and Vietnam dominated the nation's political conversation, he has vivid memories of the chapel steps as a gathering place for student activists. Alumni who once rallied on the plaza, he predicts, will be among those most eager to rally in support of its restoration.
"The alumni I've talked to think of the plaza and chapel as centers for student activity," says Hickey, "and they're all very enthused about the restoration. I fully expect that it will be a successful drive."
Campaign activity will intensify in the coming months, Ladd says. The committee is planning several additional fundraising initiatives, including a phonathon and mailings to specific populations such as faculty and staff who are also alumni. A groundbreaking ceremony is tentatively scheduled for Commencement weekend.
"It's a very aggressive timeline," Ladd says. "We're fundraising for big gifts, little gifts, pennies. The reason we've decided to conduct the whole campaign in one year is our belief that alumni, students, faculty and staff, the whole BU community, can do it."
Contributions to the Marsh Plaza Renovation Project can be mailed to Gregory Ladd, Executive Director, Alumni Relations, Boston University, 599 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, MA 02215. For more information, visit www.bu.edu/marshplaza, call 617-353-6038, or e-mail marshplaza@bu.edu.