The donation, signed on July 24, is the largest in the College of Nursing’s history. It will fulfill a substantial part of a $16 million expansion project, now 91 percent complete.

The money was given through the Timothy and Bernadette Marquez Foundation, the couple’s private foundation. Its primary focus is education and health care, said Bernadette Marquez.

“We’ve been thinking about it for a while,” she said. “We were in the position in life to be able to give.”

The new addition will be a two-floor building — an academic center on the first and research facilities on the second.

Though final architectural renderings have not been finished, early drawings show the new facility to stand alone with some sort of connection to the existing building.

The addition is expected to aid the College of Nursing in its battle against the nursing shortage that is currently affecting Michigan, Dozier said.

“We increased enrollment 110 percent,” said Mary Mundt, dean of the college. “That was done without extra space. The (new) building will help us accommodate what we’ve expanded.”

Bernadette Marquez graduated from the College of Nursing with a bachelor’s degree in 1980.

“I got a great education,” she said. “Education is the reason that I am where I am.”

She hopes the building will help train better nurses and attract more students.

“We also want to get some into graduate programs to make more teachers,” Marquez said.

Dozier said the project is still in the planning stages with the timeline for construction and architectural plans projected to be unveiled next fall.

The College of Nursing also received a donation in February 2007 from Janice and Alton Granger of the Granger Construction Company. Dozier said the couple did not want the amount disclosed.

The atrium of the new addition will be named after Janice Granger, while Dozier said the Marquezes are slated to be granted naming rights, pending approval from the MSU Board of Trustees.