Most of the $55 million needed to construct a new business school at the University of New Hampshire will come from private donations. The university received a $25 million gift from alum Peter Paul, for whom the facility will be named, and expects to raise at least another $5 million from other donors and alumni.

Of the remaining $25 million needed, about $10 million will be covered by a strategic building fund that has been percolating for several years, while the balance will come from an internal loan. Repaying that loan could mean increasing tuition, but UNH President Mark Huddleston called that a “last-resort contingency.”

“This is not a new practice. A contingency is built into all of our funding plans for building projects,” Huddleston said in a statement on the UNH website, responding to media coverage of the possible tuition hike. He noted that Kingsbury, DeMerritt, James and Parsons Halls, as well as the school’s cogeneration plant, all were funded by tuition. “It is a core expense of operating any university.” 

The $30 million in private funding makes the business school the largest privately funded capital project in the university’s history. Paul’s $25 million gift in June 2008 was the single largest donation ever at UNH. At the time, he challenged the university to match his gift with private money, but that has not happened.

Despite the lack of donations, Huddleston vowed to move forward with the business school as planned. Crews are scheduled to break ground on the Peter T. Paul School of Business and Economics this summer.