Remarks of Appreciation
Student Center Dedication
Daniel F. Sullivan—May 15, 2009
Like just about everyone at St. Lawrence, Ann and I have believed that being centrally involved in the liberal education and personal development of young people—the future of America and the world—is among the highest of callings. So to be recognized in this way, in a building that brings students together so wonderfully, means such a great deal to both of us. That this place is a beehive of student activity just about all the time is testimony to the success of the design. Here, and in other places on campus where students gather, is where the peer effect happens. Here is where students learn from each other constantly, testing ideas, opinions, prospective claims on each other and, as a result, changing their minds or deepening their understanding. We so needed this space. What a boon to St. Lawrence it has been.
One of our sharpest memories of this building is from a very cold, clear and almost completely quiet Sunday in late January, 2003—the day students returned from campus from the semester break. Ann and I were cross-country skiing on the golf course in the mid-afternoon. The building was under construction and the construction site, many of you will recall, was fenced off by what we then called the Green Wall—a place where students could paint, put up posters and announcements, write poetry, complain about the administration or each other. It’s main purpose, however, was to keep people off the building site for safety purposes. The full steel structure of the building had just been completed. A student got inside the fence and, for some reason, began to hit one of the steel girders with a heavy piece of metal that was laying around. The gong that steel structure produced was an enormous bell sound that could be heard for miles. We just stopped in our tracks and listened, in awe of the sound. It was like the building was saying: “I’m here, notice me, I’m going to be something really important.”
And indeed it has become something really important. That it should now take our names, not just mine, is an honor beyond about ability to say. There is a generosity of spirit in this university community that we have encountered nowhere else. So let me, on behalf of Ann also, just say thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
