President’s Remarks—Student Center Groundbreaking
Saturday, May 18, 2002—Daniel F. Sullivan

I’d like to welcome you all. Today, we break ground to begin construction of a new student center for St. Lawrence.
When I arrived at St. Lawrence as a freshman in the fall of 1961 the student center consisted of a snack bar located in the basement of Dean-Eaton—what we now know as Jack’s. By my sophomore year, the Edward John Noble University Center was built, and it transformed the campus. St. Lawrence was then a university of about 1,400 students, and I don’t believe anyone imagined that there would be 2,500 students in the early 1980’s, or 2,000 students today.
I also don’t believe that university leaders imagined that just a few years after construction of the Noble Center, St. Lawrence would acquire the entire campus of the Canton Agricultural and Technical Institute, now SUNY Canton College of Technology, changing forever the center of gravity of the campus at a university that had carefully placed the Noble Center so that it could be at the center.
As long ago as the early 1980’s, when enrollment at St. Lawrence was several hundred students larger than it is today, there came the first calls to build a new student center, allowing expanded space for the arts by converting the Noble Center to new uses. The St. Lawrence University Campus plan, prepared by The Architects Collaborative, and accepted by the University in October of 1986, makes two observations and a strong recommendation. It said:
· Of all the places on campus, the so-called “science quadrangle” bounded by Dean-Eaton, Madill, Brown, Flint, Valentine, Bewkes, Payson, Piskor, and Sykes was in everyone’s view the least attractive. The campus aesthetic would benefit greatly from construction of a new building in that area, to redefine and beautify it.
· Within this quadrangle, the area right where we are standing, was a clear “campus crossroads” or “hot spot.”
· At or near this “hot spot” should be constructed a new student center.
That was 1986.
By 1996, when I arrived, some elements of the 1986 plan had in fact been accomplished, but it was time to give it a thorough review. We hired the campus planning firm of Dober, Lidsky, Craig to assist us, and in 1997, after broad campus consultation, they gave us their report. The very first recommendation was that we construct a new student center, located on this spot.
Unable to proceed immediately because funding was not yet available and because other facilities needs seemed even more pressing, when Cissy Petty arrived as our new Vice President and Dean of Student Life in 1998, we “spruced up” the Noble Center to bridge us to the day—this day—when we could begin to meet this long-identified need. Albert Filoni, of MacLachlan, Cornelius & Filoni has given us a great design. This has been a long time coming. Warmest thanks to all who have brought us to this point, for their vision, their creativity, their persistence and determination. They are way too numerous to try to mention today. What a pleasure it is to be here with all of you as we finally dig the hole to begin construction.
I’d like now to introduce Bruce Benedict, Chair of Campaign St. Lawrence who, along with Larry Winston, Chair of the Board of Trustees, has been a trustee through all the campus planning I’ve summarized.