The Richter Family Welcome and Alumni Center will serve as the gateway to UMSL for prospective students and their families while also providing a permanent home for the university’s more than 112,000 alumni.
The Richter Family Welcome and Alumni Center will be a place to welcome students into the often-confusing world of higher education while simultaneously giving those who’ve already experienced its transformative power a place to return to and give back. The new 31,000-square-foot center will connect to the J.C. Penney Conference Center facing Alumni Circle.
Architects from the Lamar Johnson Collaborative provided the design for the new center, which has a $16.5 million fundraising goal. To date, UMSL alumni and donors – including the late Kirk Richter and his wife, Maureen, who provided the lead gift for the center; as well as Terry and Stan Freerks – have contributed $9.1 million toward the project. The university is also directing $4.3 million in appropriations it received through the American Rescue Plan Act for its construction. UMSL is continuing to raise donations to for the remainder of the project. The new center will serve a critical role in helping attract future students to the university.
“It’s critical that current and future students be given the opportunity to get the same quality education that I did at UMSL.” – Kirk Richter, Accounting '68
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