Money can’t buy happiness, we are told. But big enough bundles of it can get you a building with your name on it at Kansas University.

After years of planning and nearly $32 million in construction costs, two of the most high-profile building projects in recent KU times have gone nameless for months. And there are other no-name buildings waiting in the wings.

One of those buildings — the new $15 million engineering building constructed entirely from private funds — should officially have a name today, when KU announces a $5 million donor for the project. The other, the $16 million Student Recreation Fitness Center south of Watkins Student Health Center, will remain nameless for now.

“It’s not weird” that the fitness building lacks someone’s name on a wall, said Jonathan Ng, last year’s student body president. “It’s only appropriate that it’s called the Student Recreation Center since the students are the ones who paid for it. You usually have a student’s name on it, or a past chancellor or governor, but we don’t have anybody to name it after.”

That no-name status won’t be a problem after today for the engineering building. According to Dale Seuferling, president of the KU Endowment Association, the problem isn’t finding people for whom to name buildings. The problem is finding people with millions of expendable dollars who want their names on buildings.

“It’s not very hard to find a donor’s name to put on a new building,” said Seuferling. “The toughest challenge is to meet the funding level and meet all the funds for it.”

In other words — someone with enough dough and generosity to buy the honor.

Currently, the Endowment Association is searching for funding for five academic buildings, along with several proposed athletic projects. Donors are needed for another planned scholarship hall, a new multicultural activities center, a new undergraduate science building, an addition to the Spencer Museum of Art and a new Biodiversity Natural History Museum.

But Seuferling also said there had been a shift in donating philosophies over the years. He said the former reluctance among people to donate to a publicly funded institution had changed dramatically.

“Our alumni and friends have had the perspective that the state should play a significant role in funding,” Seuferling said. “That’s changed. The School of Engineering is an academic building that’s funded in total with private gifts. That’s the first time that’s happened at KU.”

With the Student Recreation Fitness Center, the naming issue is about much more than money. Last spring, a proposal went before Student Senate that the building be named for former Chancellor E. Laurence Chalmers. The plan was voted down, and Ng said it would be a tough sell to name an athletic facility after a chancellor.

“Typically, nonacademic buildings don’t have academically inclined people’s names on them,” Ng said. “Hopefully, we’re going to have a donor who puts an addition onto the recreation center and we’ll add their name to it sometime.”

After all, leaving the new recreation center nameless is better than making a mistake.

“It might be a hard sell to name it after Roy Williams,” Ng said. “And Al Bohl isn’t in contention.”