GROUNDBREAKING
The sun shone brightly on the Newhouse School plaza Saturday, Nov. 12, at the official groundbreaking ceremonies for the
74,000-square-foot third building to be added to the current two-building S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications complex.
Dean David Rubin welcomed a crowd of approximately 400 alumni, friends, students, staff, and faculty. "We are now opening the next chapter of the illustrious history of the school," he said. "We need this new building to remain at the top as a school of communication." He noted that since Newhouse II was dedicated 31 years ago, the world has experience the computer and digital revolutions, the rise of cable television, the Internet, and satellite communications.
He thanked Donald and Susan Newhouse for their continuing generosity, saying that he could not imagine a better partner in philanthropy. The Newhouse Foundation provided a $15-million gift for the new building, which is expected to cost nearly $30 million when it is completed by fall 2007.
Rubin also noted the gifts made by University Trustee Joyce Hergenhan, which names the 350-seat auditorium for the new building, Trustee Eric Mower's gift to name the glass sky bridge that will link Newhouse I and II, and Newhouse School Advisory Board Member Robert Miron and his wife Diane's gift to name the 1200-square-foot public events room.
The Dean revealed that Newhouse III will be wrapped with the words of the First Amendment. The text will be etched in the glass windows, beginning at the Waverly Avenue entrance and finishing on the wall that faces the main campus.
Speaking on behalf of the University, Chancellor Nancy Cantor noted that Newhouse III will not only be a bridge from the campus
to the community, it will look outward toward the world at large.
Michael Lopardi, SU sophomore and broadcast journalism major, spoke on behalf of the students. He stressed the school's continuing desire to "stretch … to become even better," a philosophy that permeates the classroom where future journalists and communication professionals are formed.
Donald Newhouse said that Newhouse III is a must "if the School is to carry out what my father (Samuel I. Newhouse) wished for it. That is to educate the best communicators in the world." He thanked Chancellor Cantor for picking up the reins from Chancellor Emeritus Kenneth A. Shaw without hesitation. He also thanked Polshek architects for their extraordinary design, and J. D. Taylor Construction, which he good naturedly prodded to be "on time and on budget."
The ceremonies concluded with Donald Newhouse, clad in an official hard hat, symbolically lifting the first shovel-full of earth from the controls of a bulldozer. He also clicked on the webcam that observers from anywhere in the world can operate to zoom in on construction progress over the next several months.