The Greenspun family has pledged to give UNLV 40 percent of the cost to build a new facility to house the university's Greenspun College of Urban Affairs, UNLV President Carol C. Harter announced today.

By current estimates, the proposed Greenspun Hall would cost approximately $24.3 million, bringing the Greenspuns' pledge to $9.7 million. UNLV will ask the Nevada Legislature during its next session to fund the balance.

"The Greenspun family and I have been talking about the dream of building a facility to house the college that bears their name for almost as long as I have been at UNLV," Harter said. "This extraordinary pledge would provide significant assistance to the state in the construction of this high-priority building.

"Because its programs directly address the issues of an urban environment like Southern Nevada, the Greenspun College is one of UNLV's most important academic units. Centralizing it in a single facility will strengthen the college's teaching and research programs."

The college comprises the Greenspun School of Communication, the School of Social Work, and the departments of counseling, criminal justice, public administration, and environmental studies. These programs, along with UNLV TV's television studio, would be located in the proposed 70,000-square-foot, five-story building.

The structure would be built on the property that UNLV recently acquired from the Boulder Dam Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America. The site is on University Road, adjacent to the university's primary student service corridor, which includes Moyer Student Union, student residence halls, and other academic buildings.

"My husband Hank and I have always been deeply committed to education," Barbara Greenspun said. "My family has also believed in leadership by example. When we started the Hank Greenspun School of Communication, and then expanded our commitment with the opening of the Greenspun College of Urban Affairs, it was only a matter of time before the various pieces of the college needed a place to come together. We believe the Board of Regents, as well as the Governor and the Legislature, will see the importance of bringing the college into one significant building so that its creation will provide a basis for teaching the coming generations."

Dr. Martha Watson, dean of the Greenspun College of Urban Affairs, said the college annually enrolls more than 1,100 undergraduate students and 400 graduate students who study with 54 faculty and professional staff members. Explaining that the schools and departments in the Greenspun College have been located in far-flung locations on the university campus, Watson said, "It will be wonderful to have the entire college under one roof, and I'm deeply grateful to the Greenspun family for their continued support."

The Greenspun family has supported the university for many years. The Hank Greenspun School of Communication was established in 1990 in recognition of the family's support of UNLV's mass communication program. Another gift in 1996 resulted in the naming of the Greenspun College of Urban Affairs. In that same year the family made a substantial pledge in support of UNLV TV and the television broadcast education program. The Greenspuns have supported Rebel athletics for some 30 years.

In 1977, Hank Greenspun received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from UNLV. In 1998, Barbara Greenspun, a long-time member of the UNLV Foundation Board of Trustees, received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the university, and in 1997, Brian Greenspun received the Distinguished Nevadan Award from the UCCSN Board of Regents.