Spotlight
Summer 2009 Back to Spotlight home page
The Memorial Union Renovation: Moving forward with a student mandate
Politicians might call 80 percent a mandate.
In April, when ESU students voted on student fees to
finance a renovation of the Memorial Union, the vote was
overwhelmingly YES. Even the voter turnout percentage
was about three times greater than recent elections.
“I certainly didn’t think it’d be 739 to 181. I hoped it’d be that kind of margin, but I thought it’d be to the tune of a 60-40 split,” said Jonathan Krueger, the new Associated Student Government president. “It really shows that the students wanted this to happen. It leaves very little doubt about that.”
The student fees will be phased in over the next four
years, raising $18.5 million for the project, with the
remaining 10 percent coming from private donors.
Like Krueger, former ASG president Angela Blaufuss
was intimately involved in planning the renovation and
showing its merits to students. Her reaction to the vote
was pure joy.
“Can you put this in there [Spotlight]?” Blaufuss
asked, framing a beaming smile with her hands. “I
was ecstatic. My family thought I’d won a $20 million
lottery.”
In June, from his ASG office along Main Street,
Krueger explained student involvement on the
renovation’s building and steering committees. Directly
above his office is the Colonial Ballroom, where the
union’s traditional summer occupants – hundreds of
cheerleaders attending camps at ESU – generated the
building’s usual summer sound of thunder. Even an
instructor’s cadence was dicernible through the vents as
the floor creaked and groaned, sounding like the springs
of an old mattress.
For summer visitors like this, for current students –
and most importantly, prospective students – a rebuilt
Memorial Union is a gift from this generation of students
to the next generation. A couple of years down the road,
visitors and students alike will enter a renewed, brilliant
space. Prospective students will mingle in the east
entrance, in front of the new admissions office, to await
campus tours. Krueger knows the new space will echo
the personalized atmosphere that
is ESU.
“If there’s one thing we want
them to remember from their
visit, it’s that heartfelt, warming
feeling,” Krueger said. “It gives us
an identity, within a building.”
Six or eight months ago, Dave
Hendricks’s comments on the
renovation were more about what
the structure could look like, and
how to engage students in the
plan and the upcoming vote. With
the students’ affirmative vote in
hand, however, the Memorial
Union director’s mind was
already projecting several years
into the future, envisioning what the new spaces will
accommodate.
In the east entryway, for instance, he mentioned
the plaques on Main Street honoring veterans of each
war and conflict. This union, the oldest student union
building west of the Mississippi River, was created as
a memorial to veterans – and maybe the floor of the
entryway could hold a black marble tribute to veterans,
Hendricks said, in this dynamic new space that will be
the front door of ESU. “It’s a great opportunity to tell
who we are,” he said.
Or Hendricks will stand on Main Street and look
toward the Center for Student Involvement, and
imagine a much larger open expanse – maybe a small
performance area with a stage and sound system, to
house an ASG debate or a student playing guitar over
the lunch hour. “I found myself just standing there,
visualizing how much space we’ll have,” Hendricks said. “So much more dynamic – I really like the
flexibility it provides.”
The final design plans were approved
on campus in July, and the construction
documentation phase is ongoing. By March
2010, construction will begin on the east
entryway, in hopes of completing it by early fall
2010. Earlier this spring, when students and
staff members were making 25 presentations
to major student organizations and holding
three open forums, Hendricks grew more and
more confident about the April vote. And then it
passed, and the mandate was laid down.
“Obviously I was very pleased,” Hendricks
said. “I also remembered feeling relieved and
immediately stressed, knowing that now they’ve
passed it and we’re moving forward.”
Moving forward on a mandate, while the
ESU community eagerly awaits the new
Memorial Union.
- by Jesse Tuel
What's in a Name?
It’s the year 2013… and you are back on campus to celebrate ESU’s 150th birthday. As you walk through campus you are drawn to a building that looks familiar – a building with a modern and inviting glass entryway. As you enter and move deeper into the first floor area, you realize this is the Memorial Union.
You stop by the information desk and learn that in 2009, ESU students made a major financial commitment,
voting to fund a significant portion of the union’s renovation. Through their efforts, student fees are funding about 90
percent of the project, with the remaining 10 percent coming from private donors.
What you see is a modernized, reconfigured appealing facility with eye-catching food options. You see evidence
of advanced technology, new student government and leadership offices, and one-stop shopping for students. All
the services are held in a welcoming space for students, their parents, and community members – reinforcing the
Memorial Union’s mission of providing a home away from home.
You begin to notice the names of individuals, corporations and foundations – those who provided private
support toward the renovation. Meeting rooms, offices and other spaces bear names of those who invested in ESU’s
current and future students. Then you wander to the second floor and find the renamed “KSTC Colonial Ballroom,”
permanently recognizing a university name that resonates with so many alumni.
Back in 2009… We are seeking those interested in investing in the Memorial Union through a naming opportunity.
And for those interested in the KSTC Colonial Ballroom, a piece of KSTC tradition can be yours! The first 40 donors
of $10,000 or more receive a framed shadow box holding a KSTC china plate used for official
functions in President John King’s home (see the Muckenthaler letter about the plates).
To learn more about investment opportunities, contact Mike Crouch, development officer,
at (620) 341-5440 or mcrouch1@emporia.edu.
Last Updated July 29, 2009