Donors give College of Natural Resources new name
The College of Natural Resources added a milestone to their history on Wednesday with the formal announcement of a $10 million donation from the S.J. and Jessie E. Quinney Foundation.
Because of the donation, the university has renamed the college as the S.J. and Jessie E. Quinney College of Natural Resources. With its new name, the college joined the other colleges on campus named after donors such as the Caine College of the Arts, the Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services and the Huntsman School of Business.
Dr. Chris Luecke, interim dean of the college, said they first became aware that the $10 million donation was a possibility in August of last year.
“Stan Albrecht came and talked to our college retreat at the time and indicated he was working with the Quinneys on that level of a gift. There is a lot of paperwork that has to get done with something like this,” he said.
The documents were finally signed on Wednesday. That evening, a celebration was held in the TSC Ballroom in honor of the Quinney Foundation.
Luecke said although the founders of the Foundation, S.J. and Jessie E. Quinney, have passed away, several members of the Quinney family were in attendance.
Wednesday’s gift is not the first of its kind. The Quinney foundation has made substantial contributions to the College of Natural Resources for over 40 years. Past donations have funded the college’s Quinney Library, scholarships for nearly 400 students, as well as various conservation projects and programs throughout the state, Luecke said.
“The Quinney Family has had an ongoing love of the outdoors and outdoor recreation, but also of preservation and conservation and restoration of wild areas, so our college is a really good fit for their interests,” said Luecke. “This is especially true of Joe Quinney and Jessie Quinney, the original man and wife that were instrumental in setting this up.”
Kaitlin Hasler, a senior majoring in wildlife science, said the donation shows that people are aware of the college.
“It’s great that someone supports us enough and cares about our college enough to
do something like this,” Hasler said. “It’s nice to know someone believes in us.”
Students also support the n
ame change of the college. Lara Kitchen, a senior majoring in rangeland resources said her husband, who is also a natural resources student, would have been unable to attend school had it not been for scholarships funded through the Quinney Foundation. She said changing the name of the college to the Quinney College of Natural Resources is a great way to show appreciation.
The plans for spending the $10 million endowment are not yet set in stone, but students will be benefitting directly, Luecke said.
“Much of it will go to student scholarships. We have scholarships for both undergraduate and graduate students,” he said.
Portions of the funds will also go to sustaining the Quinney Natural Resources Library and toward start up costs for new research projects. As part of the Quinney Library, the natural resources computer lab will be better able to help students learn geographic information science (GIS) programs such as Google Earth that can be used for map making and running data analysis, he said.
Neither Hasler or Kitchen said they had specific opinions on where they felt the money should be spent, but were excited that because of it their college can continue. Prior to the Quinny Foundation’s donation, there had been talk among USU administration of merging the college with the College of Agriculture or the College of Science as a result of budget cuts.
“The college of Natural Resources is more interpersonal than any other college on campus,” Kitchen said. “We would hate to see it dissolved into another college.”
As the smallest college at Utah State, the Quinney College of Natural Resources is home to about 500 students. Around 350 of of those are undergraduates, and 150 are graduate students. Even with its small numbers, Luecke said, it is ranked highly in terms of research, productivity and dollars brought in.
“Research and graduate education is one of the things that we are really known for,” he said.
– ashlyn.tucker@aggiemail.usu.edu