Inside Iowa State

Inside Archives

Submit news

Send news for Inside to inside@iastate.edu, or call (515) 294-7065. See publication dates, deadlines.

About Inside

Inside Iowa State, a newspaper for faculty and staff, is published by the Office of University Relations.

March 14, 2008

Celebrate the new MU April 3

by Anne Krapfl

If you haven't taken time yet to amble through the new spaces of the Memorial Union, circle April 3 on your calendar. MU staff and university leaders will rededicate the building that afternoon during a 4 p.m. ceremony in the first-floor atrium of the south addition. It will include a few short speeches, a poetry reading by English professor Debra Marquart, treats by ISU Dining and specials in the University Book Store.

But come early. Staff will lead building tours, departing from the atrium as small groups gather, from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.

The celebration occurs two years after work began on $22.1 million worth of renovations and additions -- approximately 30,000 square feet of each -- including the 11th addition to the building. The changes include:

  • University Book Store nearly doubled in size
  • $1 million restoration of the Great Hall
  • Hotel desk relocated to east end of the main floor
  • East entrances for the main floor ballrooms
  • New north stairwell that better links parking ramp levels to the building
  • A Lincoln Way entrance to the building
  • New paint schemes that use ISU colors
  • Electrical and mechanical upgrades that improve comfort, usability of the building

A little more construction dust

The rededication event does not mean that construction at the MU is complete, however. The third and final phase of the bookstore's expansion, which renovates the front half of the original bookstore, is scheduled to wrap up the week of April 14. In that same vicinity of the building, ISU Dining is relocating and combining its Onion's convenience store and MU Cafe into one operation, projected to open May 15.

And two projects added to the renovation schedule are just under way. The Office of Admissions is finishing space in the southwest corner of the addition for a visitors center. Monday through Saturday, prospective students and their families will gather there to begin their campus tours. It should be ready for use in August. Student fees will partially pay for a Multicultural Center in the east second-floor space formerly home to the ISU Alumni Association. It is scheduled to open in mid-September.

Summary

Memorial Union rededication

April 3, 4 p.m.

Tours, 2:30-3:30 p.m.