Seattle U's capital campaign part of long-range vision

Seattle University's academic footprint in this region is sizable after 117 years spent making good on a mission to educate leaders for a just and humane world.

It is the most diverse university in the state after Heritage College near Yakima. It's also one of the most generous, focusing millions on scholarships for the most gifted and the most needy students. An exemplary institution doing good things deserves recognition. But one ambitiously striving to be even better deserves our full support.

Seattle University's $160 million capital campaign is the correct next step for an institution on its way to becoming a premier institution. The money pays for new buildings, more tuition aid and strengthened academics. These things represent the building blocks as the Jesuit college writes its next chapter.

The list of improvements outlined by the university's president, the Rev. Stephen V. Sundborg, are part of a long-range vision compelling in its recognition of how good schools become great.

A $55 million remodel of the Lemieux Library transforms the 1960s-era building into a space for new and emerging technology, learning labs, individual and group study areas, and a reading room that makes students want to enter and learn.

Financial aid is a priority of the university; $37 million from the capital campaign will be used to strengthen that commitment.

To buildings and students, add the third aspect of the university's vision of greatness: academics. Endowed chairs and professorships in the science, business and theology departments add scholastic heft.

A plan to move up to Division I raises the level of athletics to that of academics and furthers the sense of community and school pride. In the real world of competing for the best students, these things are important.

Seattle U is just as important to our community. A gauge of this can be seen in the fact that the school has quietly raised over the past five years $137 million of its capital-campaign goal.

Moving the campaign into the public arena means going beyond foundations and heavy financial hitters to the rest of us. We all have a stake in Seattle University's ascension.