University reborn: building spree marks Du turnaround.

• Author: Titus, Stephen
• Position: Who owns Colorado? - University of Denver. College of Law

MARY RICKETS, DEAN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF DENVER'S COLLEGE OF LAW, IS GRINNING.

Sitting in the Mary Reed Building's historic library, she lovingly describes her school's new home, scheduled to open this month. The $63 million new law school is a model of modern teaching amenities, the result of input from dozens of students, teachers, architects and builders. It also is the latest in a string of new buildings erected at Denver's 150-year-old, landmark private college.

After a 30-year hiatus on new construction, DU is putting shovel to dirt with the vigor of an evangelist.

Since 1994 it has spent $350 million on new buildings and improvements to existing facilities. The impressive list of new structures includes the Daniel L. Ritchie Center for Sports and Wellness, the Robert and Judi Newman Center for the Performing Arts, the Daniels College of Business, King Lee and Shirley Nelson Hall, and the new law school, which has yet to be named.

While the campus-wide expansion is exciting, Warren Smith, director of news and public affairs at the school, points out that the improvements are the culmination of perhaps the greatest turnaround in the school's history.

"The University went through serious financial turmoil in the 1980s," Smith says. "It nearly failed and became part of the CU system."

Though the school's academic reputation remained mostly intact, it suffered from a lack of competent management. It faced $45 million in maintenance costs for existing buildings and grounds, and it was borrowing money to make payroll.

THE RITCHIE FACTOR

About that time, Smith said, Daniel Ritchie was coaxed out of retirement and asked to lead the university back from near extinction. Ritchie made his mark as CEO of Westinghouse Broadcasting before retiring in 1987 to his ranch in Colorado. He became a trustee on the school's board in 1983 and took over the chancellor position--without pay--in 1989. He put his considerable business skills to use, along with a $15 million gift to the school, bringing it back from the brink of financial failure and quickly stringing together five years of profitability, making it eligible for grants from prestigious organizations like the F.W. Olin Foundation, which funds science education.

Ritchie also invoked a new, bold vision for the school, his own, calling on the university to equal or surpass the likes of every Ivy League school in the nation.

"The goal is to do it better than they do it," Ritchie said in a recent...