Menno Simons College Gets Permanent Home
Major Donation from Friesen Family Foundation Makes it Possible

For the first time in its 20-year history, Menno Simons College (MSC) has found a permanent home. Through a significant legacy gift from the David and Katherine Friesen Family Foundation, which is a long-time supporter of MSC and Mennonite university education in Canada, MSC has purchased the first two floors of 520 Portage Avenue, the building where it has leased space since 2005.

MSC provides education flowing from Anabaptist Mennonite understandings of faith, peace, and justice while engaging other religious traditions and intellectual perspectives. The College fosters a learning community that prepares students from diverse backgrounds for participation and leadership in local and global communities. MSC, considered a pioneer in International Development Studies and Conflict Resolution Studies, offers a wide range of courses and experienced faculty in these areas that are unparalleled in Canada. Programs at MSC also include practicum opportunities and supporting scholarships. Menno Simons College is a college of Canadian Mennonite University, and it is affiliated with and located adjacent to the campus of The University of Winnipeg (UWinnipeg).
MSC plans to renovate the 16,500-square-foot area beginning May 2011 to create new and improved faculty and administrative offices, classrooms, and student facilities, and a centre for peace and social justice.

Since its inception in 1990, MSC had been leasing available space at UWinnipeg. In the ten years since CMU was established, both CMU and MSC have “expressed the goal of providing MSC with a permanent home, a place where its identity can grow and where it can more effectively serve its students,” says CMU President Gerald Gerbrandt.

The purchase of space in 520 Portage Avenue provides this permanent location. “We finally have a long-term home,” Gerbrandt says, “that will serve our faculty, staff, and students more effectively and allows us to develop a stronger identity at The University of Winnipeg.”
“This purchase gives MSC greater flexibility in terms of how the total space within the building can be used,” says Dr. George Richert, former President and Dean of MSC.  Arrangements are in the works to make the enhanced teaching and student space available to UWinnipeg’s Global College.

Says Ruth Taronno, Associate Vice-President of MSC: “This development will increase the natural synergy between the programs offered by MSC, which is considered a pioneer in International Development Studies and Conflict Resolution Studies, and Global College, which fosters globalization and engages in human rights."

“We are particularly excited about the opportunity to provide both MSC and Global College students with a quality space that will promote a true learning community and increase MSC’s profile and identity with UWinnipeg,” Taronno adds.

The Dr. David and Katherine Friesen Family Foundation has supported MSC since its inception. This significant legacy gift adds to the Foundation’s longstanding tradition of support for MSC.

“A permanent home for Menno Simons College was the wish of Dr. David Friesen, and the Friesen Family Foundation has made this possible,” says Richert.

MSC estimates the renovations will be completed by fall 2011.

A Christian university in the Anabaptist tradition, CMU is home to the Canadian School of Peacebuilding and offers undergraduate degrees as well as two graduate degree programs. CMU has over 1,800 students, including MSC and Outtatown students, and is a member of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC)

Visit our Menno Simons website at http://mscollege.ca/.

For MSC information, contact:
Sebrina (Bre) Woligroski, MSC Director of Student Services:  s.woligroski@uwinnipeg.ca
204.953.3846
Menno Simons College, Suite 210--520 Portage Ave., Winnipeg, MB  R3C 0G2
 
For CMU information, contact:
Nadine Kampen, CMU Communications & Marketing Director
nkampen@cmu.ca
204.487.3300 Ext. 621
Canadian Mennonite University  
500 Shaftesbury Blvd., Winnipeg, MB  R3P 2N2