A Dream Come True
Before the existence of the Emma Eccles Jones Education Building at Utah State University, classes within the College of Education were taught in 12 different buildings scattered across campus, said the College’s former dean Oral Ballam in the Education Building’s 1990 dedication program. What began in 1921 as a small college of five faculty members grew steadily up to when the Education Building was dedicated when the college comprised 260 staff members, Ballam said.
“This building is the culmination of a dream we have nurtured for many years; an improbable dream were it not for the generosity of Mrs. Emma Eccles Jones,” Ballam said at the dedication ceremony.
Mrs. Emma Eccles Jones, a USU alumna of the education program, made possible the construction of the huge, four-story building by contributing more than $3 million to the project. Jones had a history of generosity toward Cach Valley educational institutions. She founded Logan’s first kindergarten and donated her salary to pay for school supplies, according to a tribute in the dedication program.
One percent of the construction fund was used to purchase and commission artwork for the new building, according to the dedication program. Huge glass and metal sculptures by artist Jeff Smith hang from the top of the building’s atrium. When the Education building was dedicated, it also contained a large leaded glass sculpture depicting Emma Eccles Jones, but the piece was recently removed at the request of Jones’ family, said Rebecca Cowly, assistant to the college’s development director.
Today, the Education building is shared by several departments of the College of Education: Elementary Education, Instructional Technology, Psychology, Special Education and Rehabilitation and Secondary Education, Cowly said. There are 27 classrooms and 137 offices dot the 93,736 square foot complex, according to a 1990 fact sheet. The top floor, which houses the Psychology department, doubles as a treatment clinic, Cowly said.
Newly improved is the building’s technology center, now called the Young Education Technology Center after Doctors Dale and Adele Young who contributed to the renovation, according to a 1999 College newsletter.
“The center serves as a technology training facility. Faculty, staff and students are trained to use technologies that will enhance teaching, learning and productivity,” according to the newsletter.
Next to be improved will be the Edith Bowen lab school adjacent to the building, said Gerry Giordano, dean of the College of Education. When Emma Eccles Jones contributed to the construction of the Education Building, she asked that it be built next to the school named after her good friend, Edith Bowen, according to a 1990 article by Outlook, a USU University Relations publication. Now, the Emma Eccles Jones Foundation will donate $12 million to the construction of a new three-story school, Giordano said.
The contribution is the “third largest gift ever to a college of education,” Giordano said.
“I am hopeful my contribution for the College of Education Building will aid in enabling the college to continue to meet the challenges of the future for the educational needs of all people for generations to come, and that this will in turn contribute to the many excellent programs and endeavors of the university,” Jones said in a 1990 dedication announcement.