A $30 million investment at Donnelly College in Kansas City, Kansas, will mean more classroom space and state-of-the-art technology for students.
“What we’re doing now is creating the first-rate education that our students are getting because we’ve always been in hand me downs,” Donnelly College President Monsignor Stuart Swetland said.
The urban Catholic college broke ground Thursday on a new academic and administrative building on 18th Street that will replace the current Providence Hospital campus. Swetland says for the first time, the facilities will reflect the education Donnelly College students are getting.
“In classroom experience, we score consistently in the 90th percentile,” Swetland said. “But quite frankly, the classrooms we were able to give to them didn’t reflect that first-rate instruction.”
Donnelly been recognized by U.S. News and World Report as one of the most ethnically diverse colleges in the Midwest. Most of the students are black or Latino, and tuition is about $7,000 a year.
Elle Moxley covers education for KCUR. You can reach her on Twitter @ellemoxley.
