CLARION, Pa. (EYT) – As Clarion University celebrated Founders Day and its 148th Anniversary, it took time to introduce the community to the future with the grand opening and ribbon cutting for its suites on Main: North student housing project.
“The vision of this new student housing is to provide an exceptional collegiate living experience that will inspire our students to attend Clarion University and succeed at Clarion University,” said Clarion University President Karen Whitney in a new lecture hall/theater in grand opening remarks. “That is our compass.”
President Whitney continues, “As community members and members of the university community or anyone that is here today in a different capacity, I have to say — It is to inspire people to attend Clarion and succeed and graduate in much the same way that Jane (a 1971 graduate) has done and what she has accomplished after graduation. That is what I want for each of our incoming students. It’s about community and designed around student success.”
(A complete video of the grand opening is at the end of this article.)
In addition to Whitney, speakers included Jane France, president of the Clarion University Foundation, Inc. Board; Tyler Kitzmiller, chairman of the Clarion Students’ Association; Aaron Morris, special projects coordinator for the US Department of Agriculture; Clarion County Commissioner Wayne Brosius; and Clarion Borough Mayor J. David Walters.
A ribbon cutting was held outdoors and included various state representatives, senators, students, university officials, and others.
Student suites on the south side of Main Street will open in December in advance of the second semester. The existing Nair and Wilkinson residence halls will be demolished, allowing for existing parking after the new suites are operational.
Welcome to the Communiversity
“It is a mixed-use facility: you have residential above and retail and commercial around and that is at its core. At its core also wrapped around that is a community. Clarion is what I call a communiversity. It’s a community and a university melded together. I think it’s perfectly appropriate as we near our 150th birthday that we embrace the community with this most precious experience and asset right on our beloved main street. It is all intentional to build both up together because we rise together through all or we fall together. Actually, we rise. We all rise. When I think about the seminary that was established here in 1867, just two years after the Civil War those were the real hard times. Today, not so much. Today we’ve got stuff we have to work on, but that can’t be the hard times. We’re poised, we’re doing well, and this is a day to celebrate.”
The project is a Clarion University Foundation Inc. property managed by Clarion University. Total cost of the project is $60.45 million financed through bond funding and a $45 million USDA loan.
Moving Forward
“It’s just a great day here in Clarion,” said Mayor Walters. “Founder’s Day and this open house. You couldn’t ask for a better day for the community of Clarion. I can see tremendous things going forward for the Clarion community. Hopefully, we can continue this spirit and keep going forward. It isn’t just the retail and business aspects, but also the community. I think of the culture, the plays, students participating in the local community, the fitness classes you offer the community, the camps, and there’s just so much. Being around this theater today, it just keeps getting better and better. If you’re not going forward, you’re really going backwards. We’re going forward here, and this is just the start.”
Suite Facts
• The Suites on Main: North now open totals 109,670 square feet, houses 181 suites, including 353 students, as well as multiple open and closed study areas, a large divisible multipurpose room, and a 182 seat fully functional lecture hall/theater.
• The suites on Main North and South total 236,382 square feet, house 373 suites, including 728 students with other amenities such as Starbucks, the bookstore, and Denny’s Den, only the second of its kind in the country catering to university student use. Suites on Main South open for spring semester 2016.
• Suites on Main have been and are being built to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards silver level.
• 138 geothermal wells with piping totally 50 miles provide for highly efficient heating/cooling of the buildings.
Entire Ceremony Video
