Two new residence halls at �ֲ���ý College will be named for Elizabeth Kalperis Chu ’80 and J. Michael Chu ’80 in recognition of their $10 million commitment to the college, President Clayton Spencer announced today.

“I am deeply grateful to Elizabeth and Michael for their wonderfully generous gift,” said Spencer in her remarks at the dedication of Kalperis Hall and Chu Hall on Friday afternoon.

“Their gift underscores the power of the residential liberal arts model and our conviction that a �ֲ���ý education, specifically and especially, is rooted in place and in the diversity of human connection,” Spencer added.

“The willingness of the Chus to step forward upon the opening of these beautiful new structures and in advance of our upcoming fundraising campaign also signals to all who are watching that the �ֲ���ý community is prepared to support ambition and excellence.”

“�ֲ���ý gave both of us a remarkable education that provided the foundation for our lives and careers.”

The Chus, who met at �ֲ���ý, emphasized that their gift to the college is a “small way to acknowledge what �ֲ���ý has given to our family.” Their elder son, Christopher, is a 2012 graduate.

“�ֲ���ý gave both of us a remarkable education that provided the foundation for our lives and careers as well as lifelong friendships that nurture us in so many ways,” they added.

“Our �ֲ���ý story is immeasurably enriched by the fact that our elder son, CJ, also had a wonderful experience here. Though our time at �ֲ���ý and our son’s time were separated by almost 30 years, the DNA and ethos of the college remain very much the same as when we were here.”

Elizabeth Kalperis Chu ’80 and Michael Chu ’80 pose in front of Kalperis Hall on Friday afternoon. Kalperis Hall and Chu Hall were named Friday in recognition of the Chus’ $10 million gift to �ֲ���ý. (Josh Kuckens/�ֲ���ý College)

Michael Bonney ’80, chair of the �ֲ���ý Board of Trustees, said that one of the great rewards of his work on behalf of �ֲ���ý is the chance to celebrate “excellence of our culture and the tremendous generosity of our community. It’s even more special when the generosity is embodied by dear friends.”

He added, “As Michael and Elizabeth’s �ֲ���ý classmate and their friend, I feel profound personal appreciation for their gift. And from an institutional perspective, I see their gift as another tangible marker of how �ֲ���ý is establishing itself as a model for the 21st-century liberal arts college.”

Located on Campus Avenue across from historic Chase Hall and the Edmund S. Muskie Archives, Kalperis Hall and Chu Hall — at 65 and 55 Campus Ave., respectively — opened in August as campus housing for 243 students.

Each forming an L shape, the two halls face and complement each other across a new lawn. In addition, Kalperis Hall includes street-level space for the relocated and reimagined �ֲ���ý College Store and Post & Print office.

The project to build two residences, announced in December 2013, is part of an initiative to improve �ֲ���ý residential offerings on a broad scale while maintaining campus enrollment at approximately 1,750 students. By embodying the concept of “vertical housing” — the integration of residential life with programs like the College Store — the buildings also establish a new, dynamic area of college life and a more defined and welcoming gateway on the south side of campus.

“Kalperis Hall and Chu Hall have made real what was envisioned during the planning process: spaces that create community,” said Dean of Students and Vice President for Student Affairs Josh McIntosh.

“The living spaces offer our students an ‘at-home’ feeling, provide opportunities to live with friends, welcome lots of natural light, and bring together first-year students with upperclass mentors.”

The result is a stream of students coming and going through the area, “a hub of activity, student traffic, and life for the entire campus community,” said Philip Chen, project architect for Ann Beha Architects. “The area is embedded with the �ֲ���ý ethos of inclusivity, diversity, and community.”

Chu Hall, pictured here, and Kalperis Hall are strategic accomplishments to improve residential offerings on a broad scale while maintaining campus enrollment at approximately 1,750. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

The project’s architectural vision has been realized, said Elizabeth and Michael Chu.

“The interior design is wonderful because of its beautiful sightlines, including exterior views of the campus. The study and group spaces are so well-laid out, promoting and fostering a real sense of community — the root of everything �ֲ���ý.”

Overall, they said, the architecture “reflects the design aesthetics of the campus as a whole while clearly introducing the world of today into the buildings.”

The Chus said that the new buildings continue what they valued about residential life at the college and its diverse pantheon of buildings old and new, large and small.

Kalperis Hall, pictured here, embodies the concept of “vertical housing,” the integration of residential and other uses, such as the College Store and Post & Print, to create a hub of student and community activity. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

“Our own various �ֲ���ý residences were so different and distinctly memorable in their own right, yet they all shared a common feature. They allowed for great friendships to develop. Whether the spaces were large or small, they all contributed to a social life that is such an integral part of the �ֲ���ý experience.”

Today, Michael Chu is a �ֲ���ý trustee emeritus who is the global co-CEO and co-founder of the private equity firm L Catterton. Elizabeth Kalperis Chu, whose career was in the securities industry, serves on a number of community and nonprofit boards.

If �ֲ���ý has a spring in its step as we head into summer, it could be due to a string of great and occasionally record-setting �ֲ���ý events over the last few months. For example:

On March 31, a �ֲ���ý-record 2,100 viewers watched, by livestream, the final day of the month-long “Great Day to Be a Bobcat” fundraising event.

On April 3, 1,500 members of the campus community as well as alumni, parents, and friends took part in or attended events related to Mount David Summit.

On June 1, some 4,100 people attended Commencement. Two weeks later, more than 1,100 alumni, family, and friends returned for Reunion, including 213 members of the Class of 2010, the most classmates ever to return for a �ֲ���ý Reunion.

Perhaps typifying how these events play out — with their spirited intersection of �ֲ���ý people, great places, and excellent conversation — was the college’s May 19 Presidential Event at the Whitney Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

The event featured the inimitable broadcast journalist Bryant Gumbel ’70 leading a candid conversation on “the liberal arts in an age of disruption” with President Clayton Spencer and Trustee Emeritus of the consumer-focused private equity firm Catterton Partners.

Complementing the �ֲ���ý star power on stage was the event’s distinctive venue — the Whitney’s brand new building in the Meatpacking District — which had just opened to the public on May 1, making �ֲ���ý one of the first to have an event there.

The New York event was one stop on Spencer’s 2015 tour of U.S. cities. She’s done a similar tour in each of her three years in office, and this year she visited San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, and Portland, Maine.

With each Presidential Event open to all �ֲ���ý alumni, parents and friends in the area, this year’s tour attendance was more than 1,000, including nearly 400 at the New York event, making it one of the best-attended off-campus �ֲ���ý events ever.

Here’s how the May 19 event played out, from start to finish.

(Photographs by Matthew Carasella and Ben Gabbe of Matthew Carasella Photography.)

 5:45 p.m.

As it sets over the Hudson River, the sun shines into the Whitney’s third-floor theater space, prepared for a pre-event reception for the Mount David Society, the leadership giving society for �ֲ���ý donors.

6:48 p.m.

President Spencer welcomes Mount David Society donors to the event.

“�ֲ���ý is doing many things that bring strength to strength,” she tells the gathering. “You put wind in our sails.”

7:10 p.m.

Following Spencer’s welcome, members of the Mount David Society enjoy their reception in the theater space on the third floor.

7:28 p.m.

The Presidential Event moves to the museum lobby, a large, flexible space that has the museum store at its perimeter.

As The New York Times noted in its review of the new building on April 30, “to see the new Whitney in active use is to understand its success as a place for visitors. It accomplished its new level of comfort without carving a huge event space out of its center, as many museums have done.”

7:30 p.m. to 7:34 p.m.

As she does at all Presidential Events, Spencer starts the program with a rapid-fire report of news from campus for “those who care about metrics, to give a sense of how we’re moving.”

7:32 p.m.

The report includes updates on fundraising, the record-setting admission season, athletics, and campus construction.

Here, Spencer gives an update on construction of two new residences for fall 2016. The addition of 243 beds will allow the college to ease overcrowding in some residences, which means no more quads in Smith Hall!

7:34 p.m.

Spencer reports on recent success in �ֲ���ý sports, including men’s basketball advancing to the Sweet 16, men’s lacrosse winning an NCAA tournament game; and top-ranked women’s rowing soon heading to the NCAA Championships to “try to claim the title” (which �ֲ���ý did, ).

In this clip, Clayton concludes the sports report by sharing her straight-forward philosophy on athletics.

7:39 p.m.

Following Spencer’s report from the front, the program moves to the main event, a discussion about the liberal arts in an age of disruption.

“We didn’t drag you into New York to this beautiful venue to sell nostalgia,” Spencer tells the audience. The goal is to have “a real conversation about real challenges.”

Here, Bryant Gumbel reacts to Spencer’s introduction after she makes a humorous reference to Gumbel 2 Gumbel: Beach Justice, the show within the show Family Guy.

7:43 p.m.

After their introductions, Gumbel and Trustee Emeritus Michael Chu ’80, P’12 join Spencer on stage.

Gumbel explains the format: a conversation about “the challenges that �ֲ���ý and similar institutions face in what is popularly called the ‘age of disruption.'”

7:45 p.m. to 8:20 p.m.

Spencer, Chu, and Gumbel discuss how the disruptive forces of technology, demographics, and economics are affecting �ֲ���ý.

Within the great venue, the discussion rose to the occasion, said one attendee in a post-event survey.

“The discussion was relevant and fascinating. I recognize more and more every day the incredible education �ֲ���ý gave me, and was so excited to hear how the college is moving with the future of education.”

Another respondent said, “The conversation showed �ֲ���ý at its best. All three speakers were eloquent, brilliant, engaging, and funny.”

7:47 p.m.

Responding to Gumbel’s question of whether colleges are even capable of achieving disruptive innovation, a notion posited by Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen, Spencer explains that �ֲ���ý is using technology to turn the obstacles and drawbacks of its small scale into academic advantages.

7:49 p.m.

Michael Chu ’80 answers Gumbel’s question of why should students pay a high price for a liberal arts education when online courses are so cheap. “It’s not an either-or” question, Chu suggests.

7:51 p.m.

Chu talks about the great value of liberal arts skills in an “incredibly dynamic” world. “This is about the return on investment,” he says.

“[Catterton] hires super-smart people…for our firm,” Chu says, “and it is not an accident or coincidence that 90 percent of the professionals in our firm come from liberal arts backgrounds.”

8:08 p.m.

If educational resources become abundant and cheap in the digital future, asks Gumbel, will this pose a major threat to the existence of liberal arts colleges?

Spencer suggests that an education is a “profound project” that can’t exist in a “value-free” environment without the skilled guidance of adults.

8:13 p.m.

Spencer articulates the contemporary qualities of a liberal arts education, in terms of what employers want, and announces the creation of a new �ֲ���ý academic program in digital and computational studies.

8:41 p.m.

Then it was time for the reception, and guests had free rein to check out the Whitney’s galleries and spaces, including the outdoor terraces, and the party lasted well into the night.

Seen in one photo is the outdoor switchback staircase, which The New York Times says “is a people magnet but also a people mover, integrating the indoor galleries and the outdoor terraces and eliminating dead ends in a way that rarely happens in buildings of any kind.”

�ֲ���ý saw a 76 percent jump in attendance in New York for this year’s Presidential Event, held at the Whitney Museum of American Art. It was one of the best-attended off-campus �ֲ���ý events ever. (Matthew Carasella Photography for �ֲ���ý College)

Whatever their occupations, �ֲ���ý alumni know their experiences since graduation constitute a knowledge resource that can benefit fellow alumni as well as today’s students. And they’re not stingy with that resource.

The accumulated wisdom of �ֲ���ý people out in the world is like an electrical charge buzzing through the extended �ֲ���ý community. In Boston and New York, for instance, �ֲ���ý Business Networking groups are holding get-togethers to meet, greet and most importantly, share ideas — with the inaugural New York event, on April 29, drawing more than 50 and featuring �ֲ���ý trustee and Catterton Partners co-founder Michael Chu ’80 as speaker.

The quarterly New York gatherings include an “open mike” for comments and questions about business issues, and a featured speaker outstanding in his or her field from the alumni body. The group borrowed the format from the Cornell Entrepreneurial Network — thanks to Robert Everett, the father of Catherine Everett ’05 and a Cornell University development officer, who described his institution’s model for a planning session in January.

Chu, a �ֲ���ý trustee, is co-founder and managing partner of , the leading private equity firm providing growth capital to the consumer industry, with more than $1 billion in equity capital under active management. He founded Catterton 10 years after graduating from �ֲ���ý with highest honors as a double major in psychology and economics.

Prior to Catterton, Chu held a variety of top positions with First Pacific Company, a Hong Kong-based investment and management company, which he joined in 1983. For his fellow �ֲ���ýies, he discussed the challenges and rewards of founding a company after a successful career in international finance and business — an auspicious topic to launch the series.

Meanwhile, a steady stream of alums return to campus to offer guidance to today’s students. “Investment bankers, physicians, CEOs, entrepreneurs, state and federal public servants, members of the military — all have freely given of their time and expertise to help �ֲ���ý students make good decisions, and in many cases, give them a practical leg up in a competitive job market,” says William C. Hiss ’66, vice president for external and alumni affairs.

“For the students, it’s sometimes quite a life-changing experience, as an alum gets a student started in a career with advice or help in the hiring process.”

Topics range from business issues to life planning to the arts and humanities. For instance, two members of the Class of 1997 working in the visual arts returned during the winter — Sarah Rogers, a Ph.D. candidate at M.I.T, came in February to discuss a modern-art movement in Iraq during the 1950s, and Matt Tavares, an author-illustrator of children’s books, gave a slide talk on his work in March.

In May, three anthropology majors who have parlayed their �ֲ���ý experience into community service offer a series of talks titled Turning Anthropology Into a Career. Sponsored by the anthropology department and presented in Pettengill G4, the series features:

Robin Waterman ’85, who spent four years working in rural literacy development in Mexico and El Salvador. Co-author of Now We Read, We See, Now We Speak (Lawrence Earlbaum Press, 2000), Waterman is working toward her Ph.D. at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. She’ll give her talk, Navigating Cultural Boundaries, at 4:15 p.m. Friday, May 2;

Laurie McDonnell ’90, cultural skills trainer for the Portland/Lewiston Refugee Collaborative, gives a talk titled My Journey From �ֲ���ý Back to Lewiston at 7 p.m., Monday, May 12;

Sarah Standiford ’97, who in 2002 worked with doctors in Uganda to create a network of reproductive health educators. Now a community organizer for and co-chair of the Maine Choice Coalition, she offers the talk Building Power: Using Principles of Anthropology to Effect Social Change at 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 20.