Saint Lawrence University President Kathryn A Morris.

Fox Hall Dedication Remarks

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I’m pleased to also welcome you here this afternoon, for the very happy occasion of dedicating Fox Hall, dedicating the William L. Fox Center for Academic Opportunity, and the unveiling of the William L. Fox presidential portrait.

Bill and Lynn, we are so happy to have you back on campus for this special event—an event we have waited for far too long.

Bill and Lynn, today we celebrate the dedication of Fox Hall and the William L. Fox Center for Academic Opportunity in honor of the amazing leadership, excellence, and student support you fostered on campus throughout your very successful presidency.

While most in our audience likely know about the work of the Fox Center for Academic Opportunity, situated here in Fox Hall, it is worth repeating. Within this building, students are supported, both in terms of academic and personal development, through a number of offices that were brought together purposefully to place students at the center of our work. From the first-year program to academic advising to student accessibility services, each semester students visit this building and the center within to see their advisors and mentors for academic support. The Fox Center also serves as home to several signature programs that support diversity and inclusion on our campus. We are proud of our strong HEOP program, and our C-STEP and McNair Scholars programs. If all that were not enough, students also come to the Center for support with internships and entrepreneurial activities.

Simply put, the Fox Center for Academic Opportunity is a welcoming place for all students to receive academic support as they move through their educational journeys. For our faculty and staff who work with the students, having a renovated space with the various programs in close physical proximity, now, thanks to the fundraising endowment, strong ongoing financial security to build out programming, the future is bright.

It is truly an honor for Brian and me to pick up where Bill and Lynn left off, and we are grateful we have joined a community that is grounded in a student-centered institutional mission.

Finally, I would like to express my sincere thanks to the lead donors for their support of the William L. Fox Center for Academic Opportunity and its programs. Their names are on the back of the program, and we are especially pleased to have some of them here today—

  • Mary and Jeff Bijur
  • Andre Couture
  • Joan and Dick Corey
  • And two representatives of the class of ’75: Keith Fulmer and Lorna Ness

Your generosity and vision have created a space and programming that put student support as a central feature of our work. Thank you. 

Kathryn A. Morris, St. Lawrence University President

Saturday, May 21, 2022

Fox Hall