Marquette Engineering Gets another $25 Mil

[rocky_warrior]

Dear College of Engineering Alumni and Friends,

I'm delighted to share extraordinary news just announced today by Father Wild.  Thanks to the family of a Marquette engineering alumnus, the College of Engineering will receive an additional $25 million, doubling a previous gift to serve as a challenge to other benefactors to invest in the transformation of engineering education at Marquette.   

This remarkable donation will go toward interrelated initiatives to transform our engineering program and presence: construction of the Discovery Learning Complex to house the College of Engineering; an endowed scholarship fund for engineering students; and other uses in the college, including an energy workshop.

For more information about this gift, please click here.   

I look forward to sharing more information soon about how you can get involved in our efforts to change the way engineering students learn.  Please contact me directly via e-mail or phone to share your valuable feedback as we continue to reinvent our college for the 21st century.

Sincerely,

Stan

Stan Jaskolski
OPUS Dean
College of Engineering   
Marquette University
(414) 288-6591

[muhoosier260]

man, can't they share any of the money on any other college. better yet, shave off about 60K and put it in my bursar account

[chapman]

With the new res hall going in and everything someone should donate to help improve the selections on the "Marquette Food" thread. 

Maybe that should be been partially in sarcasm-teal, but it would be nice to have a little more retail around campus, especially if they're adding a res hall but forcing Sweeney's and Ziggy's to move-if they can find a location.  I wish they could tear down Subway and the two unnecessary stores alongside it and build a larger retail space that includes the parking lot that no more than two cars use at a time.  Also, instead of letting student groups use the space of the old Open Pantry when there's plenty of other places to do their business, they could get a store in.  And with a new 1212 building and new engineering building would make it possible for the bursar's office to move so the space next to Open Pantry could fit at least two stores.

[spiral97]

old Open Pantry

   I was a junior when that opened brand spanking new!

[Steak]

Open Pantry's old spot is what he's referring to. They moved one block over from 16th to 17th.

Sweeny's is trying to move into where China Garden is now (by Kampus Foods). Ziggy's is too far off to be looking for a new place.

[spiral97]

oh.. whew!

[Ahoya06]

I never understood why the Campus Town shops went the way they did. I attended Marquette from 1998-2000, then returned to finish from 2004-2006, so I've seen both sides of this. When I first got to MU, there was a Blockbuster, music store, bank, and couple of food places in there, plus the Annex, OP, and Book Marq across the street. I never got why MU gradually replaced the shops with offices. My only theory was that maybe they had a tough time getting new tennants, or getting existing tenants to stay, but who knows?

[sean980]

Man Ahoyao6, I totally forgot about that music store - good memory.  I think the guy who managed it now runs that Trounce Records place across I-94 in that old warehouse.  I remember buying concert tickets at that music store when I was a freshman.  At least campus now has a hot dog place.  When I was an undergrad all we had was 4 sub places - Cousins, Jimmy Johns, Subway and Blimpies.  It was ridiculous! 

[Ahoya06]

Vibes Music. I guess the guy never told his employees he was closing down, and just cleared the inventory out overnight and left. It was kinda cool having a place to buy CDs right on campus. Granted, in today's digital age, it's kind of a moot point now...

[chapman]

I never understood why the Campus Town shops went the way they did. I attended Marquette from 1998-2000, then returned to finish from 2004-2006, so I've seen both sides of this. When I first got to MU, there was a Blockbuster, music store, bank, and couple of food places in there, plus the Annex, OP, and Book Marq across the street. I never got why MU gradually replaced the shops with offices. My only theory was that maybe they had a tough time getting new tennants, or getting existing tenants to stay, but who knows?

I guess the whole Netflix and iTunes thing make the Blockbuster and music store less relevant, and there is a bank in the union.  But still, it would be nice to get some more shops.  It's such a hassle if one needs to buy socks or something.  I guess not having something like a Finish Line is good so they don't feel compelled to give our athletes shoe deals ala UW-Madison     Though Grand Ave has about every athletic apparel store imaginable all in the same building.  I think the school's contracts with certain leasees might be the reason why we can't get certain restaurants and stores.  Hopefully they can do something about that; besides getting some selection closer to campus, they could also try to help out students instead of letting some places rip them off *cough*OP*cough*.

[bma725]

I never understood why the Campus Town shops went the way they did. I attended Marquette from 1998-2000, then returned to finish from 2004-2006, so I've seen both sides of this. When I first got to MU, there was a Blockbuster, music store, bank, and couple of food places in there, plus the Annex, OP, and Book Marq across the street. I never got why MU gradually replaced the shops with offices. My only theory was that maybe they had a tough time getting new tennants, or getting existing tenants to stay, but who knows?

The bank left because the parent company had problems.  If you remember, that wasn't a US Bank like what's in the Union(may have still been Firstar back then).  It was a North Milwaukee State Bank.  That's a much smaller chain that doesn't do much business and at that time was closing sites accross the city.  They left because no one was going to them and they couldn't justify the rent.

Blockbuster had something to do with rent and poort treatment from MU.  The story I heard from people who probably know, was that after the flood when water leaked from an apartment above it due to negligence by a student, Blockbuster wanted MU to pay for the damage(which was minimal).  MU told them to pound sand and then tried to raise the rent on top of it.  So Blockbuster decided to leave.

[Ahoya06]

I think the school's contracts with certain leasees might be the reason why we can't get certain restaurants and stores..

Agreed, most notable the Sodexho contract for on-campus foodservice. That deal is a big reason we don't have real chains in our union like many other schools.

I'm guessing this plays a big role in what businesses MU will lease space to, and the University does have most of the real estate around campus. (Basically the only retail spaces I can think of that's not owned by MU is the 16th-17th and Wisconsin strip (now not including the Ziggie's/Sweeney's building), and the Kampus Foods/Subway lot.)

[ZiggysFryBoy]

from what I had heard, back in the day, is that MU is charging rediculous rent at campus town.  That was why the old coffee shop that was where jimmyjohns (?) was left.  of course, that could be because of the brew in the union too.

[🏀]

The rent is astronomical on Marquette Buildings. I was talking to the owner of the former Eagles' Cafe, and he said his store downtown on Wisconsin and Water was 3/4ths the rent that Marquette charges him.


I'm not so sure about Sodexho blocking large retail chains. WIU and ISU both also use Sodexho, and they have retail chains in there dining halls. I think it is merely a volume issue.