MSC Reopening Committee Seeks Program Proposals For Fall Grand Opening Celebration
The view of the renovated MSC from Kyle Field; pictured is the Leadership Entrance.
When students return to the Texas A&M campus for the fall semester of 2012, a fully operational Memorial Student Center building will be part of the campus landscape for the first time since it closed for renovation in 2009. Although the public will get its first glimpse of the MSC on April 21 when the building reopens, a committee is coordinating a fall grand opening, tentatively scheduled to run from Aug. 31 through Sept. 7 to celebrate the return of the MSC.
The MSC reopening committee is inviting student organizations, academic departments and other university-affiliated groups to participate in the grand opening by proposing programs to be part of the celebration. Committee co-chairs Dave Salmon and Stephen Senkel will host informational sessions regarding the program proposal form and guidelines in Rudder 301 on Monday, Jan. 30, at 4 p.m. and Thursday, Feb. 2, at 6:30 p.m.
The reopening committee, which is made up primarily of student leaders and staff members from the Division of Student Affairs, would like the celebration week to serve as a “reintroduction of the MSC to the student body, former students and the community,” says Salmon, an associate director with the MSC and a veteran advisor in the student union’s programming department.
Senkel, an associate director in the University Center Complex, the department responsible for scheduling and managing the MSC, notes that the grand opening celebration will be an opportunity to “showcase the flexibility and the new features of the renovated and expanded MSC.” Those features will include a new grand ballroom, new programming spaces and meeting facilities throughout the building, an outdoor stage near Rudder Fountain and gaming pods on the lower level.
To encourage a broad lineup of programs, the reopening committee is organizing each day of the grand opening celebration around a different theme. Daily themes include Kick-Off, Academic Day, History and Traditions, Service, Performing and Visual Arts and the Grand Finale. By organizing the celebration week in this manner, the reopening committee hopes to highlight the variety of programming options available on campus and to tie the activities that take place in the student union facility to the academic, educational and historic mission of Texas A&M University.
The east end of the building - pictured is the Integrity Entrance - will include the 12th Man Hall.
Salmon and Senkel hope to see broad participation in the grand opening celebration from across the university, noting that the reopening committee “will assist groups in all aspects of program development, from conceptualizing the events, to helping them create their proposals and ultimately implementing them.” In keeping with the idea of the MSC as the “campus living room,” as the building is frequently called, they hope campus organizations will seize the opportunity to collaborate on what Salmon often refers to as a “big housewarming for the MSC.”
MSC facility operations are provided by the University Center Complex, and campus wide programs are provided by the Memorial Student Center, both of which are departments in the Division of Student Affairs. More information on the MSC renovation is available here.
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Media contact: Dave Salmon, co-chair MSC Reopening Committee, at (979) 845-1515 or Stephen Senkel at (979) 845-8904
Keeping in mind that the building is the “Memorial” Student Center, I would hope that on the History and Traditions theme day that those memorialized at the front entrance and the Medal of Honor recipients would be be remembered/honored. I think it would be most appropriate. I’m really looking forward to the reopening of this focal center of our campus.
You might think of including people who have known all four versions of the MSC. The new is the forth. I knew the original as a student and faculty member and the last two as a faculty member.
I was a “Fish” in 1950 the year the Memorial Student Center opened. What a great and marvelous structure it was and it served us well. The newly renovated MSC is just another indication of the great progression that contunues in Aggieland. Thanks to all for this great accomplshment.
Bob Poteet ’54
Col USAF (Ret)
Don’t just limit yourselves to a week. Have a fall-long reopening celebration with events planned throughout the fall. All coming to the fall football games can join festivities throughout the season. Think bigger!