(Honolulu, Hawaiʻi) — The University of Hawaiʻi Foundation received an in-kind gift of $526,000 as part of a $1 million pledge from real estate entrepreneur Jay Shidler to support ongoing renovations at the UH Mānoa Shidler College of Business. Shidler’s donation will fund additional exterior and interior building renovations at the College.
Shidler’s gift is in addition to the previous gift of $25 million made last September, placing Shidler’s new gift total at $26 million. Of the initial $25 million gift, $1 million was allocated for renovating the building. The first phase of the renovations, which included landscaping, painting and resurfacing, is complete. Work began in June to renovate several executive classrooms.
V. Vance Roley said, "Jay’s ingenuity and enthusiasm is nothing short of amazing. He is a visionary that sees great potential in the College. With his support, we have been able to transform the College grounds into a ’campus within a campus’ in less than 6 months with more common areas for students to study and enjoy."
Roley added that the College is currently renovating two classrooms that will be ready to receive the first class of Full-Time Day MBA students this fall. In addition to new landscaping, benches and tables, lightposts, resurfaced courtyard and brighter lights, the College has been spruced up with banners, potted plants, bulletin boards and new signage.
Newly appointed UH Mānoa Chancellor Virginia Hinshaw said, "With this gift, Jay Shidler emphasizes once again his strong commitment to higher education. His impressive support is truly transforming the intellectual and physical environment for our students, who are among Hawaiʻi’s future business leaders. Enabling students to study with outstanding researchers and teachers in an environment conducive to learning is a great advance and definitely increases the positive impact that UH Mānoa and Shidler College of Business will make during our next 100 years."
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About the Shidler College of Business at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Established in 1949 as the College of Business Administration, the College was named in 2006 after alumnus Jay H. Shidler, founder and managing partner of The Shidler Group. The Shidler College of Business is renowned for its expertise in international management education and is consistently ranked among the nation's top 25 graduate schools for international business by U.S. News & World Report. Long recognized for its Asia-Pacific focus, the College is a professional school, offering a wide variety of degree, certificate and executive programs. The College places a strong emphasis on the development of management skills, entrepreneurship and the management of business information technology. The UH Shidler College of Business is the only graduate program in the State of Hawaiʻi accredited by AACSB International. For more information, visit www.shidler.hawaii.edu.
The University of Hawaiʻi Foundation, a nonprofit organization, raises private funds to support the University of Hawaiʻi System. The mission of the University of Hawaiʻi Foundation is to unite donors' passions with the University of Hawaiʻi’s aspirations by raising philanthropic support and managing private investments to benefit UH, the people of Hawaiʻi and our future generations www.uhfoundation.org.
