Campus seeks to raise $1.5 million to honor former chancellor

Faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends of UCCS launched a $1.5 million effort Feb. 22 to name a theater in honor of Chancellor Emerita Pam Shockley-Zalabak.

Led by Kyle and Sally Hybl, Colorado Springs, the initiative seeks to raise $1.5 million to name an approximately 750- seat main stage theater in the under-construction UCCS Ent Center for the Arts in Shockley-Zalabak’s honor. Following a community event, faculty, staff, students and alumni received emails inviting them to participate in the campaign.

“Pam Shockley-Zalabak’s impact on this community, and this campus, is highly visible,” Martin Wood, senior vice chancellor, University Advancement, said. “During her 15 years as chancellor and more than 40 as a member of the UCCS community, she moved the campus forward as the intellectual, social and cultural hub of Colorado Springs. We are so pleased the Hybls are leading this effort to honor her.”

Kyle Hybl serves as a member of the CU Board of Regents and as the chief operating officer of the Colorado Springs-based El Pomar Foundation. He and his wife, Sally, led the fundraising campaign for the UCCS Ent Center for the Arts and are ardent supporters of the arts and UCCS.

Shockley-Zalabak retired from UCCS Feb. 15 and was named chancellor emerita by the CU Board of Regents Feb. 17. She began her UCCS career in 1976 as an honorarium instructor and progressed through faculty and administrative ranks until she was named interim chancellor in 2001 and chancellor in 2002. While leading UCCS, Shockley-Zalabak was also active in the Colorado Springs community. She earned awards including the Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce ATHENA Women in Business Award, the 2008 Colorado Springs Business Journal Women of Influence Award, the 2013 Pikes Peak Range Riders Silver Spur Award, the S. Jerrard Smith award for contributions to the community, the American Red Cross Humanitarian of the Year Award and the Colorado Springs Regional Business Alliance Business Citizen of the Year award.

Online contributions can be made at www.uccs.edu/thankyouchancellor or mailed to the UCCS Office of Development, 1420 Austin Bluffs Parkway, Colorado Springs, CO. 80918.

The $70 million UCCS Ent Center for the Arts at 5225 N. Nevada Ave. is about the size of a city block and is located near the Lane Center for Academic Health Sciences on the western edge of the UCCS campus. The 92,000-square-foot arts center is scheduled to open January 2018 and boasts five venues, rehearsal studios, classrooms, practice rooms, balconies and gardens. UCCS joined with local community arts organizations and school districts to envision the project . The building is named in honor of Ent Credit Union following a 15-year marketing and operating agreement valued at $12.6 million.

Design of the UCCS Ent Center for the Arts is led by H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture, New York, with Semple Brown Design, Denver, serving as the architect of record. JE Dunn Construction, Colorado Springs, is general contractor for the building. Bryan Construction, Colorado Springs, was general contractor overseeing the design/build of the infrastructure improvements.