Barsema Alumni and Visitors Center expected
to nurture alumni pride, culture of giving

NIU leaders, alumni break ground for new ‘gateway to campus’

by Mark McGowan

When the Barsema Alumni and Visitors Center opens on the campus of Northern Illinois University during Homecoming 2005, the beautiful building of brick, stone, glass and steel will become a starting point for all visitors.

Yet it also is expected to become the soil that nurtures NIU through its second century, giving a terrific first impression to prospective students and new faculty while helping to grow strong and grateful alumni who return to campus and reconnect with their alma mater in ways that keep the university on its upward course.

NIU leaders and key alumni gathered Saturday for a program and groundbreaking ceremony on the 2-acre plot where the building will rise over the next year.

“When we first announced plans a year ago for this new gateway to campus, I said that this building would prove transformational for reaching out to our alumni, that it would be a symbol for this university’s excellence. As we have seen by recent and generous donations to this effort, I know others share these beliefs,” NIU President John G. Peters said.

“Recent days spent celebrating the rebirth and rededication of Altgeld Hall, our flagship
building, have stirred us all to ponder our university’s rich history and how proud we are of the NIU legacy. Prospective students who visit campus will discover a deep and visible commitment to that heritage,” Peters added.

“And soon, when the Barsema Alumni and Visitors Center opens, they’ll find a clear picture of where the future can take them thanks to the NIU experience. Meanwhile, honoring the great achievements of our graduates allows them to make a powerful contribution to the students who follow them on this campus: the inspiration to succeed.”

The two-and-a-half story, 37,000-square-foot Barsema Alumni and Visitors Center will include a faculty library, state-of-the-art meeting and conference facilities and office space for the NIU Alumni Association, the NIU Student Alumni Association and representatives from the admissions and orientation offices. Its centerpiece is the Great Hall featuring plaques, displays and exhibits highlighting the history of NIU and the accomplishments of the university’s alumni.

The NIU Foundation is serving as developer and financing construction of the building, which it will turn over to the university when the debt has been retired. The cooperative arrangement creates greater accomplishments than if the parties worked separately.

Mallory M. Simpson, president of the NIU Foundation, said the center and its comfortable and appealing spaces is “a place that will create wonderful memories for all parts of the university community.”

“Our donors are responding to the need for an alumni home on campus. They are responding to an opportunity to present a great first impression of NIU – where the university is today and where it’s going in the future,” Simpson said. “This is a place were students can get a
sense of the achievements of successful graduates and get a sense of how distinguished our alumni constituency is. We’re planting all kinds of seeds that will be harvested in the future.”

“One of the things we’re trying to underscore with all of the efforts of the Alumni Association and the NIU Foundation is to reconnect, or create a connection, or build on a connection between the university and its alumni. This building is really a physical representation of that effort,” added David Nelson, president of the Foundation’s board of directors. “It’s also important to note that it was conceived by alumni and has been funded predominantly by alumni.”

Designed to serve a variety of needs for the university, the center includes:

• Conference facilities. The ballroom and a series of meeting rooms will make the facility suitable for academic and corporate meetings.
• Banquet facilities. An elegant 4,100-square-foot ballroom – suitable for conferences, formal dinners, reunions, weddings and anniversaries – will allow the university to entertain on a scale, and at a level, currently unavailable on campus.
• A faculty library. This facility will provide the first formal gathering place on campus designed exclusively to promote faculty interaction and collegiality.
• An information center. A reception desk in the Great Hall will provide maps of the campus and community as well as information regarding events on campus.
• An alumni hall of fame. The Great Hall of the facility will feature displays, plaques and exhibits highlighting the proud accomplishments of NIU alumni.

Interest in the project, initially funded quietly by Dennis and Stacey Barsema with a naming commitment gift of $2.5 million alongside $500,000 from the Alumni Association, has blossomed recently as the spirit of the project strikes a chord with NIU alumni and friends.

Dennis Barsema, co-chair of the fundraising committee with NIU alumna and professor Nancy Castle, is one of those graduates who reconnected with his alma mater and has become an active, involved supporter.

“This project appealed to Stacey and me because it will enhance the reputation of NIU and help attract top-flight students to what we truly believe is an outstanding public university,” Barsema added. “In researching projects at other universities, I heard again and again that centers like these have helped other schools reconnect with their alumni and raise their profiles. I have no doubt this center will succeed similarly.”

The 15 individuals whose gifts are $100,000 or more each will be recognized in the “Circle of the Seal,” engraved marble floor tiles that will surround an 8-foot-wide university seal in the center of the Great Hall. Total gifts committed to the project to date exceed $5.4 million, which is 87 percent of the original fundraising goal of $6.2 million.

Indeed, support of the Barsema Alumni and Visitors Center comes during a downturn in the economy. Its development through private dollars is evidence of NIU’s forward momentum amidst three straight years of state funding cuts and, in 2004, a flat budget.

Robert Fioretti, president of the NIU Alumni Association, said the center was one of his three goals (along with the improved alumni magazine and a downtown Chicago office) to invigorate the alumni base.

“We thought that it could be the home away from home,” Fioretti said, “a starting point for alums to come back and see what’s changed on campus, and to start imagining what the future could be.”

The center also offers alums the chance to play a role in NIU’s future. Numerous opportunities for contributing remain available, from naming gifts to benches, bricks and trees.

“Giving to this project, whether you’re buying a brick or donating for a room, is something to be a part of and to be proud of,” he said. “This will energize the alumni base and bring that feeling of understanding to new students to this campus when they see what alums from this campus have done and will do.”

10-18-04