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UT Benefactors Donate Millions For Chapel

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By ADAM EMERSON

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 23, 2008

TAMPA - The University of Tampa soon will break ground on a nondenominational chapel backed by one of the school's most generous benefactors.

The $19.5 million chapel will have a wide footprint with a 250-seat hall vaulting 65 feet high and a nearby plaza with a lighted fountain adorned with 60 musical bells.

Local philanthropists John and Susan Sykes are backing the project with a multimillion-dollar donation, though neither the Sykeses nor the university are disclosing the precise amount. The university will cover the remaining costs through private donations.

The effort has been 10 years in the making, UT President Ronald Vaughn said to faculty and staff assembled Thursday. University leaders have long discussed opening a spiritual center for students of all faiths, but only recently worked out the final details.

In addition to the main hall, the chapel will have meeting and meditation rooms, as well as seating for spiritual programs, speakers, seminars and concerts. It will be named for the Sykeses.

"It's a chapel that's going to be many things to many students," Vaughn said.

John Sykes, who has given $38 million to UT since 1997, said he sought "to allow people of all faiths to have a place they could go and meditate."

The university says it has many faiths to accommodate; UT has 10 student organizations focusing on religion and spirituality.

UT used to have a chapel on the third floor of Plant Hall, but it was converted to fill the need for more classroom and office space.

"We're excited about what this can do for our campus," Vaughn said.

The centerpiece inside the chapel is a planned 45-foot organ with 3,184 pipes. The university claims it is among the largest of its kind in the southern United States.

Construction will begin this summer, Vaughn said. Crews already have torn down part of the old fairgrounds in the center of campus to make way for the chapel. The university hopes to finish construction in fall 2009.

Reporter Adam Emerson can be reached at (813) 259-8285 or aemerson@tampatrib.com.

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