Sept. 26, 2024 – KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Avila University’s ribbon-cutting today accomplished several important objectives with one slice of the oversized scissors: offering expanded and updated student housing as the school experiences a historic stretch of recent growth; honoring Avila alumna and longtime supporter Jean Buchanan and her family; and providing a new home to the Buchanan Initiative for Peace and Nonviolence.

The updates to the newly renamed Jean Buchanan Hall (formerly Ridgway Hall) give Avila more than 40 additional beds of student housing for this Fall semester. University leadership continues to explore opportunities to further expand campus residential capacity in 2025 and beyond to accommodate recent growth.

Support for these renovations was funded by the Mabee Foundation, the Sunderland Foundation and many other generous supporters of the Avila community.

Thursday’s ribbon-cutting was a surprise announcement for Jean, who graduated from Avila in 1976 with a degree in Religious Studies and Education. More than 50 years later, in May 2018, Jean and Bill each were recognized with an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, the highest honor that can be bestowed by Avila, presented to individuals that have demonstrated outstanding service and leadership to humanity, outstanding service to their community, outstanding contributions to education and those who embody the values of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet.

“Jean is a champion of peace and justice. She believes peace must be in someone’s heart. And she believes you can teach someone – or show by example—how to resolve conflicts without violence,” said Avila President Jim Burkee, PhD. “We are honored she is an Avila alumna and that she and Bill continue to share so much of their passion with this university and its students. We are proud to honor the Buchanans and their ongoing support as the namesake of the new Buchanan Hall.”

New Home for Buchanan Initiative for Peace and Nonviolence

In addition to providing Avila students with updated, expanded housing options on campus, Buchanan Hall is the new permanent home for the Buchanan Initiative for Peace and Nonviolence. Founded in 2016 through the Buchanans’ $1 million donation, the Initiative engages Avila’s academic community and stakeholders throughout the region to apply methods for building positive sustainable relationships, work through harms and injustices, and elevate the voices of the marginalized “Conflict resolution can be taught,” Jean said recently, “but the first step is for each person to have patience and understand that tolerance can inspire that. I always say, if you have to choose between being right or being kind, choose being kind. This very value is at the core of the Buchanan Initiative for Peace and Nonviolence.”

The Buchanan Initiative’s work is consistent with Avila University’s recognition of the “worth, dignity and potential of each human being” and its mission to educate “lifelong learners who make meaningful contributions to the global community.” The Buchanan Initiative brings students, academics, and activists together to raise a generation that has the nonviolent tools it needs to make peaceful social change possible.’

“The Buchanans’ support for the Buchanan Initiative for Peace and Nonviolence is world-changing in every sense of the word,” said Leslie Dorrough Smith, Ph.D., Interim Dean of Arts and Sciences and Professor, Religious Studies/Women’s and Gender Studies at Avila. “Not only does their generous philanthropy provide us with the means to teach and model the values of peace and non-violence with students while they are with us on campus, but those lessons plant an important seed that our students can carry with them their whole lives.”

Continuing Momentum at Avila University

• The Buchanan Hall ribbon-cutting was the most recent in a string of announcements and milestones at Avila in the last year:
• Avila’s spring 2024 semester topped the 2,000-student mark for the first time in 20 years and only the second time in the history of the university.
• The school kicked off the 2023-2024 school year by welcoming its largest-ever incoming freshman class and expects overall growth to continue this year.
• At the start of this fall semester, Avila and North Kansas City Hospital/Meritas Health (NKCH/MH) announced a new partnership to provide expanded access to nursing education to students within our community in an effort to address the nursing shortage in Missouri, Kansas and beyond.
• This year, Avila began offering students a three-year degree option in select programs as an accelerated educational pathway to beginning their career or begin pursuing graduate studies.
• Avila has been introducing new Graduate STEM certifications, specifically around AI, Digital Media and more curriculum for in-demand careers.
• Avila has introduced a new dual-credit program with five partnering school districts to allow high school juniors and seniors to obtain college credit in certain courses while completing their high school coursework.

Media Contact: Sara Kline
Associate Vice President, Marketing Communications and Enrollment Operations
E: Sara.Kline@avila.edu C: 913.207.8683 O: 816.501.2422

About Avila University

Avila University, located in Kansas City, Mo, and serving students from across the world, believes in offering access to Education Without Limits and inviting students to define what that means to them personally as individuals and collectively across campus. Founded in 1916 by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, Avila has been focused on the development of the whole person for more than a century, providing a liberal arts education rooted in values of service, diversity, excellence in teaching and learning. In 2023, Avila celebrated a historic milestone, welcoming its largest-ever incoming class of freshmen. The rapid growth is the most recent testament to the school’s focus on making degrees accessible through robust scholarship programs and financial aid. Thanks to decades of strategic planning and tireless teamwork by faculty and staff, Avila is now the educational home to students from 26 countries, studying an expanded curriculum that offers more than 60 majors. That’s the power of Education Without Limits. www.avila.edu