Thursday, Jan. 18, 2007
William C. Hall, Jr.
Thomas F. Farrell II
Virginia Commonwealth University today announced a $1.5
million gift from Dominion, bringing the company's total commitment to the
university's schools of Business and Engineering to $2 million.
"Dominion's generous gift places them among the top
corporate donors to the university," said VCU President Eugene P. Trani. "The
company's investment will help yield a well-trained and motivated labor pool of
engineering and business graduates who have great technical skills, conduct
research and development and understand business and marketing."
Dominion, headquartered in Richmond,
is among the top energy producers in the United
States and is ranked 123rd on the
Fortune 500 list.
"Dominion has committed these funds to help VCU strengthen
its business and engineering schools and bring more educational wealth in both
of those fields to our region," said Thomas F. Farrell II, Dominion president
and CEO.
"Each year the Dominion Foundation contributes more than $10
million to nonprofit organizations to improve the quality of life in the
communities we serve," said William C. Hall, Jr., president of the Dominion
Foundation and Dominion's vice president-Corporate Communications &
Community Affairs. "This is an investment in tomorrow's workforce."
Before pledging $1.5 million to the campaigns for the
business and engineering schools, Dominion had committed $500,000 to the
university. The total $2 million gift will be split evenly and is designated
for the two schools' fundraising campaigns which include support for
professorships, scholarships and the construction of a new School
of Business and expansion of the School
of Engineering on the Monroe Park
Campus Addition.
Construction on the business and engineering facilities is
expected to be completed in November 2007.
Dominion is one of the nation's
largest producers of energy, with a portfolio of about 28,000 megawatts of
generation, about 6.6 trillion cubic feet equivalent of proved natural gas
reserves and 7,800 miles of natural gas transmission pipeline. Dominion also
operates one of the nation's largest underground natural gas storage systems
with about 950 billion cubic feet of storage capacity and serves retail energy
customers in 11 states. For more information about Dominion, visit the
company's Web site at http://www.dom.com.
About VCU and VCU Medical Center
Virginia Commonwealth University is a major, urban public research university with national and international rankings in sponsored research. Located in downtown Richmond, VCU enrolls more than 31,000 students in 226 degree and certificate programs in the arts, sciences and humanities. Sixty-seven of the programs are unique in Virginia, many of them crossing the disciplines of VCU’s 13 schools and one college. MCV Hospitals and the health sciences schools of Virginia Commonwealth University comprise VCU Medical Center, one of the nation’s leading academic medical centers. For more, see www.vcu.edu.