$5M gift at BU means new name for biz school

Last updated: November 3, 2016 - 5:40pm


BLOOMSBURG — Bloomsburg University's College of Business will be renamed to honor two graduates who have promised a record-setting $5 million donation to the school.

Terry and JoAnn Zeigler have topped their previous $1.67 million donation, which helped launch the Zeigler Institute for Professional Development in 2011, President David Soltz said.

“They’ve lived a life beneath their means,” Soltz told the Council of Trustees at a special meeting to approve the name change to the Terry and JoAnn Zeigler College of Business Thursday.

In addition to monetary donations, the Zeiglers are dedicated volunteers, Soltz said.

‘A life lived well’
Mr. Zeigler, a 1976 graduate of Bloomsburg State College, is now president and CEO of Datacap Systems Inc., a payment-processing software firm. For the last six years he’s served on the Foundation Board, helped with the It’s Personal Campaign, and once served as commencement speaker expounding on “a life lived well,” Soltz said.

Mrs. Zeigler graduated from BU in 1977.

Together they endowed the Zeigler Institute for Professional Development to focusing on interconnected business education in 2011.
The latest gift is a combination of funds from the couple and the Zeigler Family Foundation, bequeathed to name the university’s AACSB-accredited College of Business.

1,880 majors
It’s the largest philanthropic gift ever made to the Bloomsburg University Foundation, a release says, and one of the most substantial from an individual donor in the history of Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education.

The endowment provides immediate funding and a deferred gift from the Zeigler Family Foundation, BU says.

After the trustees approved the name change Thursday afternoon, it was officially announced
at the close of the Zeigler Institute for Professional Development Business Conference.

A dedication ceremony is slated for this afternoon in Sutliff Hall.

About 1,880 students are enrolled this fall in business majors at BU, nearly one fifth of the total current student body.

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