DSU To Dedicate Student Center Complex Feb. 25

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

UPDATE: Due to inclement weather this event has been postponed until Thursday, February 25. All of the originally scheduled events will take place on the new rescheduled date.

DSU will christen its newly completed Student Center Complex with a Dedication Ceremony at 3 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 25 in the new Martin Luther King Student Center.

The public is welcome to attend the Dedication Ceremony and tours of the Student Center Complex.

With the dedication of the Complex – which includes the Strength & Conditioning Facility, the Wellness & Recreation Center with its connected swimming pool, as well as the MLK Student Center, DSU is combining the christening event with its annual observances of Martin Luther King’s Birthday and the University’s Founders’ Day.

The Honorable Walter E. Fauntroy

The event will include a keynote address by the Honorable Walter E. Fauntroy, a civil rights activist and former U.S. congressman. Mr. Fauntroy served under Dr. King in the 1960s as the director of the Washington bureau of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). He was the coordinator of the 1963 March on Washington and directed the Selma, Ala. civil rights march in 1965. He would later go on to serve ten terms as an influential U.S. Congressman from 1971-90, and during those elected years he was a founding member of Congressional Black Caucus, for which he would serve as chairman in 1981.

Earlier in the day at 11 a.m. a Question and Answer Forum will be held with Mr. Fauntroy, through which he will be able to share information about his time working with Dr. Kings and his Congressional career. That event will be held in the Education and Humanities Theatre and is free and open to the public.

There will also be remarks from DSU President Harry Lee Williams; Kathleen Charlot, current DSU Student Government Association (SGA) president; Leroy Tate, Delaware State College alumnus and the 1968 SGA president; and Dr. Claibourne Smith, chairman of the DSU Board of Trustees.

A ribbon cutting ceremony and the opening of the 1968 Time Capsule that was extracted from the cornerstone of the previous student center prior to its demolition will be other features. The University will also announce the contents of a new time capsule that will be encased in the cornerstone of the new MLK Student Center.

In addition, the University will give people a chance to own a piece of history through the sell of bricks from the previous MLK Student Center that was in existence from 1968-2008. The limited edition bricks will be on sale for $15 each in the new MLK Student Center.