U Magazine, Spring 1987

A new Center of campus life

By John Sutherland

DeSales Hall and the Immaculata as seenjrom injront of the University Center.

T welve years ago Tom Burke and Sr. Sally Furay sat down at Sr. Furay's kitchen table for a brainstorm– ing session. They brought to the meeting sharp pen– cils, blank paper and ideas about how to improve the edu– cational experience ofUSD students. During the next couple of hours the two administrators fashioned the first sketches for a facility that a dozen years later finally became reality - a state-of-the-art building designed to add a new dimension to student life at the University. "I feel a great deal of satisfaction that the University Center is completed,"says Burke, USD's vice president for student affairs since 1979 and dean ofstudents since 1973. "We now have a quality building that will help student life. " In the years following the initial planning session, other

USD administrators - President Author E. Hughes, Vice President for Financial Affairs Jack Boyce and Associate Dean for Students Tom Cosgrove, to name a few - became heavily involved in the project. Planning, fund-raising and more planning was completed. As the years passed, the size of the building grew from 30 to 40 to 50 and finally, to almost 75 ,000 square feet , according to Burke. "The building is really the fulfillment of a long-held dream ," says Dr. Cosgrove, who also serves as director of the Center. "We 've built a very good foundation ofactivities in the past 10 years , but we 've had to do things in nooks and crann ies. We don ·t have that problem any more." The Center - which opened on an everyday basis at the end of January - gives the campus for the first time in recent years a true focal point for interaction between stu-

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