2 UMD alumni pledge $1 million to renovate, expand Benjamin Building

University of Maryland alumni Ellen Gaske and Paul Gaske pledged $1 million to fund an expansion of the Benjamin Building, which houses this university’s education college, according to an article from Maryland Today on Monday.

The building was constructed in 1966 and has not been renovated in more than 50 years, according to Facilities Management’s website. The additions to the building will include classrooms used to train education students as well as labs and new gathering areas, according to Maryland Today.

Construction on the renovations is slated to begin in 2030, according to the article.

“With a transformed building that promotes collaboration, innovation, creativity and inclusion, we will be better positioned to address the grand challenges in education and well-being facing our state, nation and world,” education college dean Kimberly Griffin told Maryland Today.

The building’s new facilities and work spaces will aim to promote collaboration and relationships among students, faculty and staff, according to Maryland Today. Some students, faculty and staff from this university’s public health school will also be based in the renovated building alongside the education college, according to the article.

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Donor Ellen Gaske, who earned a bachelor’s degree in special education and general education from this university in 1975, is the vice president of an education services company and is a member of the education college’s visitors board. She has worked as a teacher in Howard County, and is also a member of the University of Maryland College Park Foundation’s Board of Trustees and this university’s education college’s board of visitors.

The Benjamin Building’s renovations will elevate the education college’s programming and foster collaboration, she said in the article.

Paul Gaske, who graduated from this university in 1976 with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering,is the chief operating officer of the telecommunications company EchoStar.

Through the Paul and Ellen Gaske Foundation, the couple established the Ellen Gaske Scholarship in Special Education, and have also donated to several projects and funds across different university departments, including labs in the A.V. Williams Building and Stanley R. Zupnik Hall.