UW-La Crosse receives nearly $3 million in gifts for science program expansion

Almost $3 million is being donated to UW-La Crosse by two families with the goal of expanding science programs at the college.

Both gifts were announced by interim chancellor Betsy Morgan on Thursday. The larger of the two gifts is $1.5 million from Mike and Kathi McGinley, to set up an endowed professorship at UWL.

Mike graduated from the campus in 1982, and says he hopes the gift will continue valuable research programs.

“Kathi and I have supported students, and various student scholarships and fellowships,” he said, “and we really felt that the time was now to support faculty, which in the end, supports students.”

Another donation of $1.3 million comes from former UW-L faculty member Ron Rada and his wife Jane, who has worked at Western Tech, to provide funding for the people who run the university’s River Studies Center.

Rada hopes the Center can use the money to enhance its good reputation, “by building upon the multi-disciplinary base of freshwater knowledge and education, and by further extending its influence beyond the halls of academia.”

The donations from Rada and the McGinleys are both scheduled to go into effect a year from now at UW-L.