MILWAUKEE — Marquette University has received a $3.5 million gift to fund capital improvement projects in the school's oldest building.

The university's Diederich College of Communication said Monday it received the donation from the Bernice Shanke Greiveldinger Charitable Trust. The money will fund renovations to Johnston Hall starting in January. Renovations are expected to run through August 2018.

Bernice Shanke Greiveldinger graduated from Marquette's School of Journalism in 1942 and worked in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's advertising department for over 40 years. She died in 2008. The Greiveldinger Trust donated $1 million toward construction of Marquette's new Jesuit Residence in July.