UK to expand College of Business building, receives $4.9M donation for project
The University of Kentucky has received $4.9 million from the Bill Gatton Foundation to expand the Gatton College of Business and Economics building.
The expansion comes as the enrollment of the college — the second-largest at UK — has grown in recent years, with nearly 5,500 students enrolled this school year. It will be the third expansion since the building opened in 1963.
The board approved plans to initiate the project on Friday. The donation will support the planning and design phase as the school’s enrollment continues to grow, according to material from the Friday board of trustees meetings.
“This is totally related to the growth — one of the fastest growing colleges we have at the University of Kentucky is our Gatton College of Business and Economics, and this will allow us to serve existing, as well as future, enrollment growth,” said Eric Monday, executive vice president for finance and administration.
Enrollment in the school has been steadily growing in recent years, with almost 2,000 more students enrolled in the 2024-25 school year than in the 2015-2016 school year, according to data from the university.
The design phase of the project is expected to cost $9 million, according to information from the meeting.
“The space will be designed to facilitate today’s educational needs with flexibility to accommodate future needs and may include classrooms, student spaces, offices and other support spaces,” according to the project information.
The building has been expanded twice before: once in 1992 and again in 2015. The 2015 expansion increased learning space by more than 40%, according to previous Herald-Leader reporting.
Bill Gatton, who died in April 2022, was the single largest donor in UK history. He and his foundation have given more than $180 million to UK. In the past, gifts from Gatton and the foundation have gone toward the new UK College of Agriculture, Food and Environment building, the Martin-Gatton Agricultural Sciences building, the student center on campus and scholarships. Donations to UK have continued after his death through the Bill Gatton Foundation.