New buildings are more than spaces for classes, activities and events. They are also recruiting tools.

In addition to having quality faculty members and coaches in a warm atmosphere, new facilities help draw prospective students to the University, said Doug Smith, vice president of university advancement and chief executive officer of the BGSU Foundation.

The newest planned addition to campus is the Stroh Center, which will be partially funded by an $8 million donation from Kermit Stroh and his family. The center will be the new home for basketball and volleyball programs.

‘The convocation center is a very, very needed building and structure on our campus,’ said Stroh, who made the donation with his wife, Mary Lu, and children.

Other new or planned buildings include the Wolfe Center for Performing Arts, the Sebo Athletic Center and Ice Arena renovations.

‘The convocation center will bring a greater awareness to our community,’ Stroh said. ‘It not only brings a great place to sports, but it brings to the students a place for graduation and concerts.’

Smith has worked with Stroh for the past 10 years to talk about and structure the donation Stroh wanted to make.

Smith said the foundation’s goal is to ‘raise money to provide that margin of excellence.’

The Stroh Center is ‘a real resource that will allow us to do things we currently can’t do,’ he said.

Stroh’s relationship with BGSU began in the early ’60s when he did radio broadcasts of high school basketball games held at Anderson Arena.

‘I learned to love the people there,’ he said. He met three individuals who had a great passion for the University, and they shared their passion with him. This led him to want to help with athletics and academics.

‘There’s a continual movement of things that need to be done [at BGSU],’ Stroh said.

‘Anderson Arena was a great, great place, but it’s used up its usefulness,’ Stroh said, referring to the arena’s lack of handicap accessibility, small number of restrooms and general aging.

University President Sidney Ribeau said Anderson Arena must be replaced as the graduation facility.

The building doesn’t have air conditioning or elevators, and Ribeau said he doesn’t want an uncomfortable experience being so many students’ last memory.

Stroh was on the Board of Trustees for BGSU when the Union was approved for construction. Since then, he said the University has worked to improve facilities, academics, athletics and the dorms, all of which are important, so that everyone can feel proud of this university.

Ribeau said the facilities on campus need to be renovated to stay competitive and create spirit.

Head football coach Gregg Brandon said if BGSU is going to be a Division I school, it needs to look like a Division I school in all aspects.

‘We can’t watch the rest of the league pass us,’ Brandon said.

University Athletic Director Greg Christopher said he does not want any of the buildings on campus to be deficient.

‘It will turn students and parents away,’ Christopher said.

Brandon said when he started working at the University, the offices and meeting rooms had closed doors. He said he and Urban Meyer, the head football coach prior to Brandon, didn’t want the recruits to see sub-par facilities.

‘Now there’s not a thing on this campus you’ve got to hide,’ Brandon said.

He said the teaching aspect of football doesn’t have to compete with the facilities now. There is plenty of meeting rooms and workout spaces in the Sebo Center.

‘The only adversity is our opponent,’ Brandon said.

Facilities like the Sebo Center can only help recruitment, Brandon said, but he emphasized that he recruited good players without the building.

‘We did a good job before. You work through the issues,’ Brandon said.

A space the size of the Stroh Center can be used for large banquets and events to bring more University employees and students together.

‘Building communities and relationships is very important,’ Ribeau said. The events hosted there will also help offset some of the building costs, he said.

A building such as the Stroh Center has been talked about since 1995, Ribeau said. A new student union was determined to be the most important building then, so funds were funneled in that direction.

Theater renovations were considered for many years, too, and last summer, donations were made for the Wolfe Center for Performing Arts. This facility will be a collaboration of the dance, theater, art and music departments. There will be new majors offered and state-of-the-art technology and design, Ribeau said.

Smith said he hopes a donation will be made in the near future for academics.

‘It’s not easy to get private money for old buildings,’ he said. ‘Do we want to do more? Yes.’

He said when someone wants to make a donation – as long as it is for something that is needed – that donor won’t be encouraged to donate toward something else.

Sometimes those donations aren’t just for one area, either.

Scholarship opportunities are also important to Stroh, so $300,000 of his donation will be used as scholarship money for students in the west-central Ohio area.