In his annual State of the University address, University President the Rev. Robert A. Wild announced a $5 million gift to the College of Engineering from Marquette alumni Jim and Kelly McShane.

Wild's speech, given Tuesday in the Alumni Memorial Union, reflected on the university's past and present, with the engineering donation looking toward the future.,”

In his annual State of the University address, University President the Rev. Robert A. Wild announced a $5 million gift to the College of Engineering from Marquette alumni Jim and Kelly McShane.

Wild's speech, given Tuesday in the Alumni Memorial Union, reflected on the university's past and present, with the engineering donation looking toward the future.

The McShanes' gift will be used to establish an endowed chair in Construction Management in the college, according to Wild. Jim is a 1968 graduate of the College of Engineering and Kelly is a 1968 graduate of the College of Arts & Sciences.

Wild's address took the form of an imaginary conversation between Wild and Milwaukee's first bishop, the Rev. Martin Henni, who had the original idea for a Catholic college in Milwaukee. The fictional conversation examined how far Marquette has come in the past 125 years.

"I thought it was really fascinating to look at Bishop Henni's look at what Marquette has become," said University Provost Madeline Wake. "It was a fresh, new look at the Marquette community."

The College of Engineering donation will also bring something new to Marquette.

"This impressive gift will allow civil engineering to bring in a top-flight professor to provide intellectual and professional leadership for this new academic program," Wild said.

According to Stanley Jaskolski, dean of the College of Engineering, the McShane chair will be the third endowed chair the college has obtained in the last two years, bringing them that much closer to their goal of seven.

"Endowed chair positions are absolutely magnificent to have if you can get them supported," Jaskolski said. "We are absolutely blessed with the McShanes being able to support us in this way."

This support will allow the college to strengthen its programs not only for current students but future students as well, according to Jaskolski.

"This is an opportunity (for the College of Engineering) to enhance its curriculum and provide better-trained students for the 21st century workforce," Jaskolski said.

Wild also re-emphasized his commitment to building the university's endowment. In last year's presidential address, Wild announced his goal to have Marquette's endowment reach $1 billion within the next seven years.

"The additional income from a billion dollar endowment would give us the financial strength to award more and better scholarships and fellowships to our students, to hire and support properly additional top-flight faculty, to fund research and on and on," Wild said.

According to Wild, the endowment stands, as of the end of last year, at $328 million dollars.

Wild said the $1 billion goal is "possible and also necessary."

Wake said she thinks the endowment is doing well.

"I think we can reach ($1 billion), but I'm not sure how long it will take us," Wake said.

Throughout his whole address, Wild made sure to emphasize the importance of Marquette's mission for education.

During a question and answer session after his address Wild said, "There is no mission without money, but at the end of the day, it's about mission. That's what gets me up in the morning."

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