|
|
|
December 2007
|
CAMPUS NEWS |
|||||
|
Hundreds on Hand to Celebrate SIS “Green” Ground-Breaking Ceremony
On an otherwise gray November day, hundreds of AU alumni, students, faculty, and staff packed into a standing-room-only-tent as the excitement and anticipation of a long-awaited groundbreaking for the new SIS building loomed. “We are really here for a very simple reason, and that is to celebrate,” said SIS Faculty President Paul Wapner. As the nation’s largest school of international affairs, AU’s School of International Service outgrew its headquarters years ago and has eagerly awaited a day like Wednesday, November 14, for some time. No one in attendance could be more proud than the school’s dean of 21 years, Louis Goodman. President Neil Kerwin, SPA/BA ’71, introduced Dean Goodman, telling the audience “I give you someone whose leadership of SIS has been indispensable and whose dedication to the school is simply without rival.” “What a great day for SIS and for AU,” proclaimed Goodman. “AU has grown more than six times the size of what our founders envisioned…On this very spot we will construct a building where students can let their imaginations fly.” The new building will be constructed on the (formerly parking) lot adjacent to the AU Library and current SIS building. Other speakers on hand included Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI); AU Trustee, Bishop John R. Schol; SIS Alumna of the Year, Sherri Mueller, SIS/BA ’65; SIS Emeritus Professor Millidge Walker, and SIS Associate Dean Leeanne Dunsmore – all of whom had a story to share with the audience regarding their experiences with SIS, the many “green” features of the new building, and plenty of people to thank for their part in having reached this milestone. Sen. Inouye greeted everyone with the traditional Hawaiian “Aloha!”, then received laughs for following up by stating, “You thought I was going to say something else?” The third-most senior member of the U.S. Senate spoke in a peaceful, well-paced tone that paid tribute to some extremely important AU history that included a former United States president.
“Some of you may not know that on the night of June 9, 1957, President Eisenhower stood just about where we are today and broke ground for the new school of international service,” said Inouye. “(As a general in World War II), Eisenhower was an unusual general – he was a general who wanted peace, and he made no bones about it…Eisenhower was still waging peace as president when he said to the school and faculty in 1957, ‘American University and I agree on this, that the waging of peace demands the best we have – the best young men and women that we can find to put into this great effort, that must go on around the world, all the time.’ As a member and cocreator of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission, Inouye and the rest of the commission’s 12 members are tasked with memorializing Dwight D. Eisenhower, who served as the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe in World War II and subsequently as the 34th president of the United States. “He was the most international of American presidents,” said Inouye. Recent SIS alumna and graduate student Blair Mersinger, SIS/BA ’06, also spoke briefly, representing a younger segment of the SIS community. “Like freshmen, anticipating the beginning of a new school year in a new school, we stand here eagerly awaiting the start of a new era in the School of International Service,” said Mersinger. Following the ceremonial shoveling of dirt, in which all speakers took part (Sen. Inouye using the same shovel used by President Eisenhower in the 1957 ground breaking), many guests went to a panel discussion hosted by Dean Goodman and featuring architect William McDonough, who spoke and answered questions from those who wanted to learn more about the new 70,000-square-foot environmentally friendly building. Some highlights of the structure will include:
More information about SIS’s new “green building” can be found online. -David Ferraris | |||||
