“As we look around this campus of course you will note many impressive facilities, many impressive new facilities going up, so one could be excused for thinking this is just a normal day at the office. However of course, it is not,” said Errol B. Davis, Chancellor of the Board of Regents (BOR) at the historic ground-breaking ceremony for the Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons (CULC). The CULC itself was highlighted at the event.
The building will feature “modern facilities…refined laboratories, technologically advanced classrooms and interactive learning environments,” said Davis.
The ceremony was held on Skiles Walkway at 2 p.m. on April 5. The ceremony included distinguished speakers, light snacks and artistic two- and three-dimensional renderings of both the building and the revamped Skiles Walkway that will come with the construction.
In addition to campus administrators and leaders as well as Chancellor Davis, Tech was graced with a visit from a locally famous Federal Secretary, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and former Tech president G. Wayne Clough.
Clough, who was also a Tech alum (CE 64’, MS 65’) served as Tech’s president for 12 years, from 1994 till 2008. He left the Institute in 2008 to serve at the Smithsonian Castle.
“When I got to the Smithsonian, it was very nice…. But I kept telling people we need to have more fun. Then, six months later the Tech Glee Club showed up and sang at my office. People came up afterwards and told me ‘That’s what you were talking about’,” Clough said.
During the ceremony both President G.P. “Bud” Peterson and Senior Vice Provost Anderson Smith thanked the countless private donors who have contributed to the construction of what Undergraduate Student Body President Alina Staskevicius called “The heart of the campus”.
The participants and Davis also thanked both Governor Sonny Perdue and the Ga. State Assembly for working to help finance the project with $60 million in state bonds.
Clough was awarded the title of President Emeritus by Davis and Peterson, a title that was conferred upon him as a gesture of thanks for his focus on undergraduate education as well as his contributions to the Tech community as a whole.