Seattle U ignites plan to build sports power amid spirituality

Seattle University believes its future lies both in the noise of Division I sports and in the quiet of Catholic contemplation.

To help get there, the state's largest private university today will announce a campaign to raise $160 million — money that will increase the university's endowment and be used for everything from boosting scholarships to building a new fitness center. The campaign will run through July 1, 2009.

Seattle U leaders say that part of the challenge for the future is reaching out to students' secular interests — like basketball — while maintaining the college's religious roots. To that end, the university will put $15.5 million into a new fund for faculty and staff members to learn more about the Jesuit Catholic tradition, either through travel or study.

"We think it's vital," said the Rev. Stephen Sundborg, the university's president. "Religiously-founded universities that don't invest in this in a very intentional way, over a period of time, lose that character."

The biggest single capital expense, $35.5 million, will go toward a major overhaul and expansion of the library, which was built in the mid-1960s. But that money won't pay for new books. Rather, there will be new high-tech classrooms, more than 100 extra computers, a multimedia production studio and a cafe. The floor space will be expanded by 37,000 square feet.

There will even be a new "Speaking Center" to improve students' oral presentation skills — surely anathema to librarians of old.

"Students now work and learn in very different ways," said Seattle U Librarian John Popko. "This library is going to combine contemplative space with the marketplace of ideas."

The university also plans to put $37 million toward endowing a number of scholarships for students, to help alleviate the rising cost of attendance.

By Seattle U's own estimate, with annual tuition at $26,000, it can cost an undergraduate $39,000 a year to attend — once room, board and other expenses are taken into account.

The push to rejoin NCAA Division I basketball, after Seattle U dropped out of the West Coast Conference in 1980, also remains a priority for Sundborg. That despite a setback last year when the member schools from the West Coast Conference said they weren't interested in expanding any time soon. Sundborg said it will just take more time. He plans to spend $1 million more on athletics each year in hopes of elevating Seattle U to a standard at which the school would be more welcomed in the division. There is also $20 million earmarked from the campaign for the new fitness center and to upgrade athletic facilities.

While the fundraising campaign will be publicly launched today, it has gone on behind the scenes for nearly five years. As is the case with most college campaigns, leaders wait until fundraising is well under way before setting what they believe is a realistic target.

Seattle U, which has an endowment of $215 million, has run two similar fundraising campaigns in the past. The first, in the 1980s, raised $26 million; while the second, in the 1990s, raised $67 million. The University of Washington, meanwhile, is nearing the end of its latest eight-year capital campaign, which has raised $2.5 billion.

Significant growth

Founded in 1891, Seattle U has grown significantly in both size and prominence over the last 15 years. Perhaps the biggest change came when the university bought the law school from the University of Puget Sound, and then moved it from Tacoma to Seattle in 1994.

Law Dean Kellye Testy said the school, with 1,100 students, tries to balance academic rigor with a social and ethical mission.

"We do it by asking questions," Testy said. "By asking students how decisions will impact the poor and the oppressed in the world, and how they can use the law to make the world a better place."

The Seattle U law school has recently broken into the ranks of the top 100 law schools in the country, according to a list compiled by U.S. News & World Report. U.S. News ranks the Seattle U law school 82nd. The smaller UW law school is ranked 30th.

Since Sundborg became president in 1997, student numbers have increased 30 percent to 7,500. And the number living on campus has nearly doubled to 1,700, with plans for more on-campus student housing in the works.

"We are a much more active, intense, dense, on-campus, alive campus," Sundborg said.

When it comes to embodying the university's religious roots, Sundborg tries to lead by example. He is one of 25 Jesuits who live on campus. Seattle U pays the Jesuit community an equivalent of Sundborg's salary — $260,000 a year — and the community, in turn, provides the president with food, board, job-related travel and other expenses. The community also gives money back to the university.

Sundborg's personal expenses, meanwhile, are a fraction of those incurred by other university presidents. To pay for personal entertainment, vacations and anything else, he gets a quarterly stipend: $1,000.

Nick Perry: 206-515-5639 or nperry@seattletimes.com