A recent gift of $4.5 million from alumni Aubrey and Katie McClendon will be put toward the new West Campus student plaza, President Richard Brodhead announced Thursday.
The heftiest financial sum Duke has received in support of the plaza, the McClendons’ donation is also the naming gift for the $10-million project.
Larry Moneta, vice president for student affairs, said the name of the plaza will be selected before its scheduled opening to the University community in Fall 2006.
“We’ll work with the [the McCLendons] on deciding the name of the plaza. It’ll be a partnership,” Moneta told The Chronicle Thursday.
The plaza, a 40,000-square-foot elevated space that will connect the Bryan Center, Page Auditorium and West Union Building, is designed to serve multiple functions. It will include open areas for socializing, staging arts performances and dining.
Construction of the plaza began in July and will include the demolition of the Bryan Center Walkway, set to start with the walkway’s closing Monday, Aug. 29.
Moneta noted in a press release that the McClendons’ decision to provide funds for the new plaza is consistent with their previous support for enhancing student life.
The McClendons’ latest gift brings their total financial givings to the University to $16 million—both the Tower in Keohane Quadrangle and the commons in the Office of Undergraduate Admissions bear the couple’s name.
“Katie and I are pleased to be able to give back to the University, a very special place for us where we met 27 years ago,” Aubrey McClendon said in a press release. “Duke changed our lives in many important ways, and we are hopeful that through our giving back to Duke, we can help enhance the lives of today's Duke undergraduates. We believe Duke is an exceptionally well-run institution, and we look forward to further philanthropy at the University in the years to come.”
Katie McClendon graduated from Duke in 1980 and formerly served on the Board of Visitors for the Trinity College of Arts & Sciences.
Aubrey McClendon, the co-founder, chair and chief executive officer of Chesapeake Energy Corporation, graduated from Trinity in 1981 and is currently a member of the Fuqua School of Business Board of Visitors. The couple lives in Oklahoma City.
In addition to the plaza gift, the McClendons donated $800,000 to fund a new pipe organ in the Goodson Chapel of the Divinity School and $700,000 to support the Trinity and Fuqua annual funds from 2005 to 2009.
Saidi Chen contributed to this story.
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