Canisius College receives $4.4 million in HECap funding

Canisius College received a $4,398,329 million Higher Education Capital Matching Grant (HECap) from New York. The grant will help fund the construction of classrooms and laboratory facilities on the second level of Science Hall, the college’s interdisciplinary science center.

The HECap program is a competitive grant program that provides critical matching funds to private college campuses, enabling them to build, renovate and renew facilities.

“We are pleased to be among the institutions to receive a HECap grant and thank our New York state representatives for their continued support of this critical program,” President John J. Hurley said. “Science Hall has become a hub of collaborative academic programming and a resource enjoyed by the community. This grant will help fund the complete renovation of the second level of Science Hall – an additional 60,000 square-feet of classroom and laboratory space – further enhancing our stellar biology and premed programs and the unique and nationally-recognized undergraduate animal behavior, ecology and conservation (ABEC) and graduate anthrozoology programs.”

HECap grants must be matched on a 3-to-1 basis. Canisius estimates the Science Hall project cost at $17.6 million and will match the HECap grant through private fundraising, financing and internally generated funds.

Over the past decade, Canisius has invested $40 million in the purchase and development of Science Hall, the largest capital undertaking in the college’s history. Canisius has completed the renovation of more than half the building, including the lower and first levels, as well as a portion of the third level.

The building opened to students in 2012 with classrooms and laboratories, as well as a large commons area used by students and the neighborhood community.

The planned renovation would cover the entire second floor of the building that will house the college’s biology and ABEC programs. Plans call for classrooms, teaching laboratories, research laboratories, offices and meeting spaces.

Science Hall currently houses the departments of mathematics, computer science and physics, as well as the George E. Schreiner '43, MD Pre-Medical Center, the Institute for Autism Research and most recently, the college’s new physician assistant (PA) studies program. The third level of Science Hall is home to the Catholic Health EPIC project, where the Catholic Health team developed its new electronic medical records system.

The college hopes to begin the project later this year.

Science Hall was built in 1929 as a Sears, Roebuck & Co. department store and remained as such until the 1980s when it was converted to office space. In late 2008, Canisius purchased the 240,000-square-foot building situated between the college’s main campus and its athletic complex.

Canisius is one of 27 Jesuit universities in the nation.

The (HECap) program awards matching capital grants to colleges for the design, acquisition, construction, reconstruction, rehabilitation or equipping of a facility on or near a college campus within the state, including critical academic facilities, economic development and/or high technology projects and urban renewal and/or historical preservation projects that would enhance the programmatic offerings or the student life at the college or provide economic development benefits to the area surrounding such college campus.