Photo Taken by Mary Laing/ Photo Editor
S. L. FULLER
News Editor
For $5 million, you could name the new Science Center after yourself – or after whatever you want for that matter. No one has taken Fredonia up on that offer yet, so the building remains nameless. However, on Oct. 17, 29 different parts of the Science Center were named in the dedication ceremony held in the brand new building.
The Science Center was “officially” opened during the ceremony with the cutting of – not a ribbon – but a huge double-helix DNA model. Each of the 29 different areas being dedicated were decorated with bows and ribbons of their own.
Festivities officially began with a live performance of a piece called “And Still It Moves” composed by Dr. Robert Deemer, music composition area head and associate professor of music composition. The piece featured University Choir, the Trombone Choir and the Saxophone Choir.
“I was really excited [to write the piece] because the sciences were reaching across campus and including the arts in their special day,” said Deemer. “They didn’t need to do that – they weren’t required to do that.”
The sciences in fact tried to incorporate as many different people in the Science Center celebration as they could. After the musical performance, a diverse group of speakers made speeches.
Speakers were: Ramses Rodriguez, a biology master’s degree candidate; Dr. Virginia Horvath, Fredonia’s current president; Frank Pagano from the Fredonia College Council; Dennis Hefner, Fredonia’s 12th president; Holly Lawson, the project shepherd, who is also an associate chemistry professor at Fredonia; Steven Goldberg, partner of Mitchell/Giurgola Architects; Congressman Thomas Reed, from the 23rd District of New York; Lori Cornell, regional office representative of the office of Gov. Andrew Cuomo; Sen. Catharine Young of the 57th District of New York; and Andrew Goodell, New York State Assemblyman of the 150th District.
If $5 million dollars is too much, but you still want to dedicate something, there are plenty of options in the Science Center. For a $5,00 donation, supporters can name a classroom. For $25,000 to $45,000, supporters can name a research laboratory. There are also other options; this includes one that goes all the way up to $125,000 to name the courtyard.
Inside the Science Center is the Hefner Seminar Room. This, of course, is in honor of the former Fredonia president and his wife. Shortly after Hefner became president, Jewett Hall was the main science building; it was time to start making a plan for the university in upcoming years.
“At the time when we were looking at the next plan,” said Hefner during his speech, “Jewett was nearly 50 years old. Science had changed in the last 50 years – Jewett had not.” That’s when they made creating a new science complex one of the top priorities.
But now that the building exists after eight years of planning and construction, it’s up to the faculty and students to use it to it’s full potential.
“It’s not enough to just live in this beautiful building,” said Lawson during her speech. “It’s what we do here that matters.”
After the speakers, guests were to go on a self-guided tour of the building. But, just in case, there were student ambassadors lining the halls waiting to give directions and answer questions.
“It’s a really cool building. The labs are very, very advanced and they’ve gotten a lot of new equipment, said student ambassador Kelly Proudman, senior biology major. “Having new equipment that works very functionally allows the labs to go a lot more smoothly and you can get through a lot more quickly and do more experiments.”
Not only did the sciences try to incorporate a diverse group of people in their celebration, but Deemer kept this in mind as well. At first, he wasn’t going to use text in his piece. But then, he came across part of a William Wordsworth poem called “Tables Turned.” The text reads “Come forth into the light of things, / Let nature be your teacher.” Out of the many choruses and choirs on campus, Deemer chose the University Choir specifically to sing that text.
“It made sense to use the University Choir because it’s kind of an amalgamation of the entire campus. I know there are probably a few science majors in the group,” said Deemer. “The idea was celebrating the fact that [the Science Center] isn’t just for one area of campus, but it’s actually celebrating something for all the institution.”