de Cordova Hall (2005) The Katherine D. Elliott Studio Arts Center (2006) Gearan Center for the Performing Arts (2016) Gearan Center for Performing Arts In January 2016, the Colleges celebrated the grand opening of the Gearan Center, an extraordinary 65,000-square-foot facility that brings together music, dance, theatre and media and society in a unified academic space for the first time. Made possible thanks to the generosity of countless alumni, alumnae and friends of the Colleges, the facility is the largest capital project in the history of HWS. The Board of Trustees unanimously voted to name the building in honor of Mark D. and Mary Herlihy Gearan. Geneva, N.Y. and Civic Engagement A national expert on the intersection of higher education and service, Gearan made Geneva and civic engagement a priority of his presidency. Over the course of 18 years, the Colleges' Center for Community Engagement and Service Learning became a leader in the field promoting positive community change and enhanced student learning. In order to further deepen the Colleges' relationship with the City of Geneva, N.Y., Gearan created the Geneva Partnership, an initiative to increase community engagement and develop graduates who will be agents for change in their own communities. Hobart and William Smith made a number of investments in the City of Geneva including direct payments to assist the City budget, donations to non-profit organizations, and support of civic projects. As part of the Colleges' longstanding partnership with Geneva, in 2012, HWS established a 10-year, $1.7 million commitment to the City that assists in balancing its budget. Under Gearan's leadership, HWS partnered with the Geneva City School District (GCSD) in an initiative called Geneva 2020 which seeks to harness the resources of the Colleges and the Geneva community to provide assistance in key areas identified by GCSD as being critical to the future of Geneva's children. With the goal of ensuring that students in the local community have the skills necessary to graduate from high school and to effectively pursue college and careers, the program has helped move the local high school graduation rate from 70.7% in 2010 to 87.6% in 2016. The Colleges partnered with the City of Geneva in its successful bid to become a 2015 All-America City, a highly-selective honor awarded annually by the National Civic League to only 10 cities across the country. The HWS Day of Service, a tradition of nearly two decades, became