Chapman Gets $500,000 Grant for Science Labs

The James Irvine Foundation has awarded Chapman University a $500,000 matching grant to help the campus upgrade science facilities and equipment, the university announced Tuesday.

The university must raise another $1 million to receive the matching total, all of which will be devoted to modernizing laboratories and equipment on the 2,300-student campus, Chapman spokeswoman Ruth Wardwell said.

The foundation grant will be given in $100,000 increments, as Chapman documents gifts and pledges.

“We see this as a renewed commitment toward science education in private institutions of higher learning,” said Karl Reitz, chairman of the university’s division of national and applied sciences.

Reitz noted that fewer than 20% of the facilities and equipment in colleges and universities across the United States are “state of the art.”

The university hopes to use the money to buy lasers, an electron microscope, computers and software. It also plans to create a lab to analyze water and a system to detect industrial pollutants.

Funds will also be used to renovate the university’s Hashinger science hall, which will be renamed the James Irvine Auditorium, Wardwell said.

President James L. Doti called the foundation grant a “vote of confidence in Chapman University” that will encourage other donations.

Doti called raising $1 million in matching funds during recessionary times “a surmountable challenge.”