Kettering University has launched a $150 million fundraising campaign entitled “Boldly Forward” and unveiled plans for a new Learning Commons — a major academic hub to be built on its campus.

With the addition of the new Learning Commons, Kettering University continues its ongoing investment in the City of Flint. The university says an estimated 118 new construction jobs are expected to be created as a result of the new building, with additional jobs to follow upon its completion.

It will also have collaboration spaces, an auditorium, access points for information resources, new dining facilities, and a student worker space that focuses on mobility and artificial intelligence.

“Investments, like the ones we are making, have a host of far reaching implications for us and our community,” says Dr. Robert K. McMahan, president of Kettering University.

“First and foremost, to our students, through it we boldly affirm our commitment to providing them with an academic environment that remains unrivaled anywhere in the country, with second-to-none learning advantages that guarantee they have a competitive edge when they leave this university.”

Gary Cowger, chairman and CEO of GLC Ventures, LLC, serves as Kettering’s campaign chairman and leads the multi-million-dollar fundraising campaign for the university. GLC Ventures is a management consultancy on business, manufacturing, and technology strategy and global organizational structures and implementation

“As we look to the future, this undertaking demonstrates Kettering’s ongoing commitment to providing a world-class learning environment for students and faculty that is second to none,” says Cowger.

The university’s fundraising and advancement activities have set all-time institution records across all levels. The “Boldly Forward” campaign has already raised $103.6 million.

Kettering is also home to the GM Mobility Research Center, a state-of-the-art research facility and proving ground, completed in the fall of 2018. The facility is one of only a handful of its kind in the world and the only one of its kind in the United States located on a college campus.

In addition, Kettering is recognized as a leading applied research institution. Its faculty members have received 12 National Science Foundation Major Research Instrumentation awards since 2012 — more than any other university in Michigan during that period. The university has more than 27,000 feet of lab and research space used by faculty, students, and industry collaborators. It also has the only ABET-accredited applied physics program in the world, offering a degree in engineering physics.

“As a leading STEM institution and research center, this university continues making significant and impactful investments demonstrating that we are not only steadfastly committed to remaining a world-leader on the technological stage — but, moreover, that we are intent on leading that charge,” says McMahan.

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