Friends, family and colleagues joined Monday at the dedication of the Dr. Chander and Karen Kohli Hall that houses the Youngstown State University Excellence Training Center. Here, Dr. Erdal Sarac of Poland, left, congratulates Dr. Chander Kohli on the dedication. ... Staff photo / R. Michael Semple

YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown State University’s “We See Tomorrow” fundraising campaign has received a $5 million donation.

“The community has been great to us, so I wanted to give something back to the community,” Chander M. Kohli, a longtime area neurosurgeon and former YSU Board of Trustees chairman, said.

The donation from Kohli and his wife, Karen, matches the largest gift in the university’s 113-year history.

During a news conference Monday at YSU’s new Excellence Training Center, Kohli and his wife were on hand to see the ETC renamed Kohli Hall.

“Chander and Karen are loyal, generous supporters of the YSU community, giving of their time and talents, as well as their treasure. This historic gift and the naming of the building that houses our new Excellence Training Center ensures that the Kohlis’ legacy will live forever,” YSU President Jim Tressel said in a statement.

“This is a huge day for our YSU family, our community, our Eastern Gateway Community College and all of our young people to see what their future holds,” he said.

As a result of the gift, the $12.1 million, 54,000-square-foot building at Commerce Street and Fifth Avenue on the YSU campus will receive technology upgrades and integration, equipment purchases and maintenance, building expansion and renovation and money for program initiatives.

In addition, the donation will go toward funding 19 Classrooms of the Future, including two at Kohli Hall, in memory of the couple’s late son, Aneal Mohan Kohli, who loved technology.

“We are honored to have our son’s memory live on in these high-tech classrooms,” Karen Kohli said.

The Excellence Training Center project got underway in 2015 and has become a state-of-the-art innovation, education and research hub that offers access to a wide range of advanced manufacturing and education programs. The facility also will provide users with opportunities to work with industry partners and leaders, as well as offer exposure to high-tech career opportunities, university officials have said.

Specifically, Kohli Hall offers coursework in commercial printing, additive manufacturing and hydraulic maintenance. It also houses an automation and robotics lab and a design lab, along with a computer numerical control manual machining lab that Eastern Gateway Community College shares.

“They can graduate with an A.A. (associate degree) in machining,” Carl Kovach, EGCC’s machining instructor, said.

Perhaps most importantly, the facility will provide students with what they need to make a difference in the manufacturing world, Karen Kohli said.

“It’s limitless what they can do here,” she added.

Before borrowing a small sum of money and coming to the U.S. in 1966, Chander Kohli had graduated from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi. After his arrival, Kohli completed a rotating internship and a one-year residency at Elyria Memorial Hospital in Elyria before coming to Youngstown in 1972 and setting up a private neurosurgical practice.

Remarks from Monday’s news conference also came from Paul McFadden, the YSU Foundation’s president, and David Sipusic, Kohli Hall’s executive director.

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