Backed by multi-million-dollar donations, construction for a three-level building for UF's graduate business program could start this summer.
John Kraft, dean of the Warrington College of Business Administration, said $9.7 million of donations have solidified plans to build the Hough Graduate School of Business, a $23 million project, beginning in this summer.
Kraft said the building, which is planned to be built next to Stuzin Hall, could be ready for use in January 2010.
William Hough, who was in the college's first graduating class of master's of business administration students in 1947, donated $5 million to the building's construction - a donation "big enough so his name goes on the building," Kraft said.
Chris Brazda, spokesman for the UF Foundation, the organization that oversees UF's endowments, said the rest came from a $1 million dollar donation from Tom Shannon, a former Florida Gator football player and his wife; $ 1 million from John and Mary Lou Dasburg; and another $1 million from Jean Wittner, in honor of her husband Ted Wittner, a UF alumnus.
The remaining $1.7 came from miscellaneous funds.
Hough donated another $25 million to the graduate business program in January 2007 when building plans were first proposed, Kraft said.
Chris Brazda said a million-dollar donation each came from Tom Shannon, a former Florida Gator football player,
He added that Kraft said an "up-to-date" building would increase interaction within different parts of the program.
He said it would also offer the college's 1500 students better teaching and make the program more competitive against peer schools.
