Here's the article that was in the Syracuse Post-Standard about the
building of a rink on-campus. Unfortunately, I was mis-quoted. The SU
team will use the rink for practices but not games due to the
low-seating capacity of 500. For games we will continue to play at the
State Fairgrounds Coliseum with a capacity of 3,000.
 
We're hoping that this will help to the eventual sponsoring of NCAA
Division-I hockey.
 
Here it is:
http://www.syracuse.com/news/stmonday/19990607_rpnrink.html
 
Couple gives $3.9m to build SU ice rink
A graduate remembers the university with a gift for students, faculty
and
staff.
 
By Mike McAndrew
 
Syracuse University will break ground this fall on a campus ice skating
rink
thanks to a $3.9 million donation from an SU alumna and her husband.
 
The south campus ice rink, which will be used by students, faculty and
staff, will be named after Marilyn and William Tennity. Their donation
ranks
among the largest ever received by SU.
 
 "This is a wonderful opportunity for the university, and we are very
grateful," Chancellor Kenneth Shaw said.
 
 Despite its plans to open the rink in September 2000 near the Goldstein
Student Center, SU does not plan to establish men's or women's ice
hockey as
a varsity sport, said Mary Ann Shaw, the chancellor's wife and
assistant,
who helped secure the Tennitys' contribution.
 
Title IX - the federal regulation requiring universities to offer equal
athletic opportunities to male and female students - and the costs of
operating varsity ice hockey teams are keeping SU from skating down that
path, university spokesman Kevin Morrow said.
 
The SU men's and women's ice hockey clubs - which are not NCAA teams -
will
use  the rink for practice and games, Morrow said.
 
University officials are still considering policies for public use of
the
rink, but SU will probably apply guidelines like those in place at its
swimming pools and other recreational facilities, Morrow said. The
public is
not permitted to use those facilities except in special circumstances.
 
The ice rink will feature heated bleachers that will seat about 500
people,
three locker rooms, a skate rental office and a concession. The total
cost
has not been determined.
 
  The donation from the Tennitys marks the latest success by SU's
ongoing
$300 million  "Commitment to Learning" fund-raising campaign, said
Sidney
Micek, vice president for development. The campaign is the university's
most
ambitious effort in its 129-year history and has raised $275 million
since
beginning in 1993.
 
The largest gift from an individual to SU remains the $12 million that
Ruth
Meyer Freeman left the school when she died in 1996.
 
 The Tennitys' gift would have ranked as the fifth-largest donation to
SU at
that time.   SU officials will not say now where the Tennitys' gift
ranks.
 
 The overture
 
 The Tennitys agreed to finance the ice rink in April while chatting
over
lunch with the  Shaws at the Tennitys' club near their home in Indian
Wells,
Calif., Mary Ann Shawsaid.
 
 The Shaws have visited the Tennitys at least once a year for about
seven
years, she said.
 
 Several years ago, during one of those visits, the Tennitys expressed
an
interest in supporting SU financially, Mary Ann Shaw said.
 
 Marilyn Tennity fell in love with her first husband, Syracuse native
Charles F. Swift, while they were both SU students. The couple never
lived
in Syracuse after graduating in 1942. But Marilyn Tennity retained a
fondness for her college days, and helped organize her 50-year class
reunion
in 1992.
 
She and William Tennity returned to SU again in 1996 to attend a Reunion
Weekend.
 
 Marilyn Tennity inherited much of her wealth from her father, George D.
Smith, who worked for United Parcel Service for five decades and was its
chief executive officer when he died in 1972.
 
During the Shaws' visit in April, the chancellor mentioned his interest
in
building an ice skating rink on campus for students to use, Mary Ann
Shaw
said.
 
 "When he started talking about the ice rink, they became very
interested in
it," she said.
 
 Both Tennitys skated when they were youths, but they are not avid
skating
or hockey fans, Mary Ann Shaw said.
 
 "Mostly they were looking for a wholesome activity for students to
become
involved in," she said. "You can take your dates there, have a cup of
hot
chocolate, spend a nice evening together. For them, that's a worthwhile
activity for students to become  involved in."
 
 The Tennitys declined requests to be interviewed.
 
Met on campus
 
 Citing the couple's wish for privacy, SU officials divulged few details
about the Tennitys.
 
But a relative, old newspaper stories, the 1942 SU yearbook and other
documents shed some light on the donors.
 
Marilyn Smith of New Rochelle and Charles F. Swift of 601 University
Ave.
met whilethey were both students at SU, according to Dr. Edward Swift,
Charles' older brother, who lives in the town of Onondaga. Swift said
the
couple married when they were seniors.
 
Marilyn "remembers very clearly when she was in school that going to
Drumlins wasthe big thing," Mary Ann Shaw said. "They used to go to
afternoon tea parties there.
 
 "She remembers quite well how cold it was here, too," the chancellor's
wife
said. "She remembers trudging to class in boots and heavy clothes."
 
 Smith was a psychology major, a member of the sociology club and Gamma
Phi
Beta sorority, and she lived at the sorority's house at 803 Walnut Ave.
 
 Swift was the son of Viola and Dr. Albert Swift, a professor at the SU
Medical College who was called "the dean of Syracuse surgeons" in his
obituary published in 1959 in The Post-Standard.
 
Charles Swift earned a degree in political science at SU.
 
During their senior year, the campus - and all of America - was stunned
by
Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. The 1942 Onondagan, SU's yearbook, shows
pictures of students sitting around a large radio holding newspapers
with
banner headlines about the U.S. declaring war.
 
After the couple graduated, Charles served in the U.S. Medical
Administrative Corps during World War II.
 
Upon his discharge, the couple moved to Amherst, and Swift began his
career
as a dentist. The Swifts raised four children. During the 1950s, they
moved
to the Los Angeles area.
 
After her first husband died, Marilyn Swift married William Tennity, a
Rochester area native, RIT graduate, and retired mechanical engineer,
Mary
Ann Shaw said.
 
Gifts in California
 
The Tennitys have been active in many civic and charitable projects in
their
California community. They gave several large donations to The Living
Desert, a wildlife preserve near their home, according to newspaper
accounts. The Tennitys provided core funding for the preserve's $4
million
African Village and its $4 million veterinary hospital and research
center.
 
"I know they've been thinking about (donating money to SU) for a long
time,"
saidEdward Swift. "It's nice of them. It's a great opportunity for them
to
help in ways they  can. It's a great help to Syracuse."
 
SU sophomore Derek Hodgins said he is thrilled SU is going to build a
rink.
Hodgins and other members of the men's club hockey team have had to rent
the
rink at the state fairgrounds to practice and play games.
 
 The team recently joined the American Collegiate Hockey Association,
which
organizes national championship tournaments for club hockey teams. A
campus
rink will allow the club to practice more often and draw more fans to
its
games, Hodgins said.
 
In May, SU athletics director Jake Crouthamel rejected Hodgins's
proposal
that SU create men's and women's varsity hockey teams.
 
Hodgins said he hopes having a rink will eventually persuade SU to
establish
hockey as a varsity sport.
 
Monday, June 7, 1999
--
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Derek Michael Hodgins
Columbia Design, Co.
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http://www.cyberhole.com
 
Syracuse University
Student-Aerospace Engineering
SU Ice Hockey Club
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