Tabor meets challenge ahead of schedule
Staff writer
Tabor College has met a $1.5 million challenge grant from Tulsa’s J.E. and L.E. Mabee Foundation for a residence hall scheduled to open next year.
Tabor raised $2,236,229 five months earlier than it had planned.
The project marks Tabor’s biggest grant from Mabee.
“Mabee Foundation has been a wonderful partner for many years,” college president David Janzen said. “This is the seventh project that they’ve helped fund.”
The grants date back to a library addition in 1983. Mabee also has supported the Wohlgemuth Music Education Center (1989), Campus Recreation Center (1992), Solomon L. Loewen Natural Science Center (1997), Townhouse Residence Halls (2006), and the Shari Flaming Center for the Arts (2017).
The foundation has “very strict rules” on when organizations can apply, he said.
“You have to have raised 40% of the full project but not have broken ground or signed a contract yet,” he said.
Tabor applied for the grant in March.
The residence hall, which will have single, double, and triple rooms, “is well on its way under construction. The roof is going on, and progress is going well. We are expecting it to be done this coming summer with occupancy in August 2023.”
The hall has lounges, study rooms, a family room, a kitchen area, and laundry facilities.
“It’s structured like a big duplex, a mirror image on each side,” Janzen said.
Janzen credited Tabor’s development staff and Mabee for transforming “our campus for generations to come.”
The hall at the corner of Adams and B Sts. will house 86 students.