I am pleased to welcome so many friends of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln who have joined us for the dedication of Andersen Hall, the new home of the College of Journalism and Mass Communications.
Harold and Marian Andersen are dedicated alumni who have been great and generous friends of the university for many years. We are also pleased that their children and their spouses, David and Leslie Andersen and Mark and Nancy Andersen Karger, are able to attend today’s event. We are excited and proud to be able to thank the Andersens and the many other generous donors involved in this building for their vision and good spirit.
I also extend welcome and greetings to University of Nebraska President L. Dennis Smith and to NU Regent Nancy O’Brien … Will Norton Jr., dean of the College of Journalism and Mass Communica-tions, Jenny Philippi, a senior advertising major from Lincoln, who is representing students, and Terry Fairfield, president of the University of Nebraska Foundation.
I also welcome representatives of our state’s media: Allen Beermann, executive director of the Nebraska Press Association, and John Edgecombe, president of the Nebraska Press Association. Thank you both for your organization’s long-standing support of the college.
It is also my pleasure to welcome and acknowledge faculty and staff of the college who are here this evening. Join me in acknowledging these individuals who make up the heart and soul of the college.
This evening, we’re celebrating the addition of another star into the constellation of new or renovated buildings to come on line in the last year at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
A combination of state and university funds and generous support of donors and friends have allowed us to expand the physical campus in an almost unprecedented manner. The addition of Andersen Hall to our slate of academic buildings now brings the physical facilities of the college up to the level of its academic programming. One of the best academic programs universitywide, the college is also one of the best in the nation.
Our thanks to Alley-Poyner Architects of Omaha, represented by Perry Poyner and Steven Shogrin, for their fine work. Kudos to Builders’ Inc., general contractor.
We also express our gratitude to Alan Wedige, project manager for UNL Facilities Management, for his work in shepherding a complex project to completion.
Harold and Marian, thank you and thanks to all of those whose donations and vision have made this building possible. We dedicate this building in your honor and now hand it to future generations of journalism students.
NU President L. Dennis Smith
I want to add my thanks for all the wonderful work that has gone into this facility, both by the architectural and construction people and by the faculty and staff of the college who had to deal with the moving-in process.
The goal of the University of Nebraska is to be among the top 30 public universities in the United States. We are confident we can achieve that goal because we already have a substantial number of outstanding programs.
The College of Journalism and Mass Communications here at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln is one of those — a college that has demonstrated exemplary performance.
This past academic year, for example, out of 105 colleges of journalism competing for the coveted William Randolph Hearst Award, this college placed among the top three, joining Northwestern and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
And Brian Carlson, who graduated last December, took first place in the 41st annual Hearst Awards National Writing Championship — sometimes referred to as the “Pulitzer Prize of the College Journalism.”
This type of recognition is the result of outstanding work by excellent faculty members — including the recruitment of students of the caliber these awards recognized.
But to keep the good faculty we have and to recruit excellent new faculty members, we must provide good facilities in which they and their students can do their work.
We have done that in this instance. Without question, this is among the finest academic centers for journalism in the country. For this we thank both the Security Mutual Life Company and our own University of Nebraska Foundation.
NU Regent Nancy O’Brien
I’m pleased to bring greetings on behalf of the Board of Regents.
As Regents, it is our desire to house every program offered by the University of Nebraska in facilities that are well designed and properly outfitted to support the work of faculty and students.
And, while the state of Nebraska historically has been helpful in providing such facilities — and also in assisting greatly with the operation and maintenance of buildings — there simply is not enough state funding available to provide for all of our needs for physical facilities.
The alternative we have turned to in this ongoing effort is, obviously, private funding support. And in this we have been successful beyond our fondest hopes. The Foundation’s latest effort — Campaign Nebraska — was an outstanding success, and you can see around you one of the benefits of that success.
I must note, of course, the role played by Harold and Marian Andersen in Campaign Nebraska. They were the campaign co-chairs. It is most fitting, therefore, that this wonderful facility should bear their names.
Harold and Marian, the Regents thank you, and faculty and students thank you.