Gifts to the IUP Fairman Centre in Punxsutawney are being acknowledged with the naming of areas within the building after four donors.
Resolutions for the namings were approved by the Council of Trustees during its public meeting September 25, 2009.
The entrance vestibule, lobby, and dining area will be named in recognition of gifts from the Borough of Punxsutawney. The large kitchen will be named in honor of the Punxsutawney Area College Trust.
Two student suites were named in honor of gifts:
- The Linda D. and C. David Deabenderfer Student Suite recognized a gift from the Deabenderfers in memory of Linda Deabenderfer's parents, Lettie Jean and Alvin C. Drummond.
- The KTH Student Suite was named in honor of a gift from KTH Architects Inc., in memory of Peggy A. Hine-Brady, mother of Ethan Hine, a member of KTH Architects.
On September 18, the Foundation for IUP and IUP celebrated the completion of a $6-million renovation of the IUP Fairman Centre with formal ribbon-cutting ceremonies.
The IUP Fairman Centre, at 101 Mahoning Street in downtown Punxsutawney, is a multiuse, 24,308-square-foot building with retail space currently occupied by Gilson Glass and More, two kitchens, a dining room, lobby, three classrooms with multimedia technology, board room, a 112-seat auditorium with multimedia capabilities and “smart” podium, and twelve rooms for twenty-three students in IUP's Academy of Culinary Arts.
The renovation and subsequent uses of the center are estimated to create up to sixty new jobs within five years of operation and add the opportunity for three hundred new students at the Academy of Culinary Arts and IUP at Punxsutawney—IUP's two educational centers in Punxsutawney.
The 106-year-old IUP Fairman Centre is the former J.B. Eberhart Building, which was a retail and business center. In ceremonies held October 27, 2006, the Punxsutawney Regional Development Corporation presented the building to the Foundation for IUP, a nonprofit entity.