Students of Today, Yesterday Herald Opening of IUPUI Campus Center
Calling the IUPUI campus "a crown jewel," of Indianapolis and the new Campus Center, a shining "beacon," Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis alumni and student leaders enthusiastically heralded the opening of the building during its dedication Wednesday (April 9, 2008).
The $56-million IUPUI Campus Center, 420 University Boulevard, is the fulfillment of long-held dreams of generations of IUPUI students and the culmination of collaborative efforts of students, alumni, benefactors and construction crews, dedication speakers said.
"It is very uplifting for me to be here today and see the remarkable progress of the IUPUI campus," said IUPUI alumnus Carey B. Lykins, now president and CEO of Citizens Gas & Coke Utility. Lykins said he was in his second year of college when undergraduate classes moved to the current IUPUI campus in 1971.
"My fellow students and I were commuters and we swept into campus by car, attended class, and swept back again. I rarely ate a meal on campus . . . Worse still, I rarely interacted with other students. I feel I benefited from a fine education, but I didn't enjoy a (traditional) college campus experience."
Now IUPUI students "will enhance their fine education with the chance to eat, learn, and share with their classmates. They now have a campus life," Lykins said.
The food court in the five-level, 261,000-square-foot Campus Center has been named Citizens Commons in recognition of the financial partnership of Lykins' company.
"As IUPUI goes, so goes Indianapolis," said Lykins, who spoke on behalf of Campus Center donors and borrowed those words from dedication keynote speaker John N. Gardner. "I can assure you on the behalf half of all donors, we get that. We know that," Lykins said.
"We are gratified to play some small role in the creation of this campus center because we know that any investment made in IUPUI, making it provide a better educational experience, will be returned to this community many times over."
Citing IUPUI's impact on Indiana, including the creation of jobs and the education of 60,000 alumni who live in the state, Lykins said, "IUPUI is already a crown jewel of Indianapolis . . . the crown jewel just got brighter."
Alumnus Stephen J. Akard, director of international development with the Indiana Economic Development Corporation, also recalled his campus experiences during his dedication remarks.
"In the 1980s, other student leaders and I pleaded for some common space that would unify the campus and give life to the emerging IUPUI identity," Akard said.
"IUPUI need not struggle with an identity crisis anymore. IUPUI has arrived and this building stands as a beacon to the community, both figuratively and literally . . . A beacon of the hope and the opportunity for an education that IUPUI offers for all of Central Indiana . . . IUPUI's future is as bright at the gleaming glass and stone that surrounds us here today."
Indiana University President Michael McRobbie presided over the dedication ceremony held in the Campus Center's fourth floor multipurpose room. IUPUI Chancellor Charles R. Bantz delivered greetings from the campus before Gardner's speech.
Undergraduate Student Government President Sharee L. Myricks and Graduate Student Organization President Mitchum L. Owen also spoke during the dedication.
"Through this shared effort, we now all have a shared space to collectively call our own regardless of what school, degree or enrollment status we may have," Owen said.
The dedication was part of a full-day of grand opening activities that started with a 9 a.m. ribbon cutting and interfaith blessing with prayers by various community religious leaders.
Students were given red-handled scissors imprinted with "IUPUI Campus Center Dedication, April 9, 2008" to help administrators cut the giant red ribbon stretched across the I-U-P-U-I sculpture at the Vermont Street door of the building.
A carillon (bell) concert, performed by Rosemarie Seuntiens at the keyboard of a 48-bell traveling carillon the size of a standard shipping container, followed the ribbon cutting. The concert provided a foretaste of the bells that are to be installed in the Campus Center's 180-foot bell tower.
Additional grand opening activities are scheduled throughout April. For additional information about the Campus Center, including a complete list of grand opening activities, go to: http://www.iupui.edu/~sldweb/campus-center/
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