Just in time for the holidays, Chancellor Albert Carnesale has received an important gift for the campus: a commitment of $2.8 million from retired businessman Milton "Curly" Krieger to fund an expansion of UCLA's child-care facilities. The gift will be matched by additional funding from the University of California Office of the President.

Although construction is at least two years away, the new building is expected to provide space for an additional 80 children, substantially reducing the long waiting list for campus child-care services for faculty, staff and student families.

"This expansion will bring our capacity up to about 330 children -- the largest campus-operated child care availability in the UC system," said Gay Macdonald, executive director of UCLA Child Care Services. "It will substantially address our long-standing accessibility needs and also will help the university recruit top-tier faculty."

Approximately 250 pre-schoolers are currently accommodated at the Bellagio and Fernald Centers on campus and the University Village Center about five miles south. An addition will be built behind the existing Bellagio Center, which will be modified. The entire complex will be named the Krieger Child Care Center in recognition of the gift. Additional funds will be raised for operating expenses.

Krieger, a 1934 UCLA graduate who turns 90 in February, founded a sheet metal subcontracting business, which he sold in the 1970s. He proudly traces his association with UCLA back to 1923, when he and his family lived across the street from the Vermont Avenue campus; he attended grammar school, a teacher-training facility, there. A man of eclectic interests, he writes short stories and carves wooden toys that he personally delivers to local children's hospitals.

"There are lots of ways you can help a university -- hospitals, clinics, endowed chairs," Krieger said. "But it's important for UCLA parents to be able to drop their children off for the day without worrying about them. I think this can be the flagship of all child-care centers in the country."