Sponsorship good for school but may confuse students
Confusion with abbreviations and names for buildings closely resembling each other may have led a few students astray, but beneath the surface lies a rich legacy of educational growth.
Some of the confusion comes from the buildings named after members of the Eccles family. Most of these buildings have the surname listed first, thus creating some confusion.
The Eccles Conference Center (ECC) and the Eccles Science Learning Center (ESLC) both share the name of those who have given money to promote learning at Utah State University. Other buildings adding to the confusion include the Engineering Classroom (EC), the Ellen Eccles Theatre, the Emma Eccles Jones Education Building, and the Computer Center (CC).
Tammy Woodruff, facility coordinator for the ECC, said the confusion happens every semester while students are looking for their classrooms.
“It’s entertaining – we laugh. Everyone [in the office says] ‘it’s the first day of class, is everyone ready?'” Woodruff said.
Each semester, the staff members along with the maintenance crew in the ECC, post fliers on the doors and around the building explaining where students are at that moment.
“That’s my favorite, when people come in and say, ‘I’m looking for the Eccles building,'” Scott Winter, a maintenance worker in the ECC, said.
Woodruff said this year was more of a problem than in the past with the addition of the ESLC. With more than 800 students looking for the same building, the traffic into the ECC was higher.
“This is a hub for directions,” she said.
But directions are not the focus or main work for the center which is part of the Kellogg Lifespan Learning Complex. Dallas Holmes, institutional research specialist, said the complex originally included not only the ECC, but the University Inn and the parking terrace.
All were built as part of a continuing education push made by the Extension program at the university, he said.
In the late 70s, Holmes, then working as the director of the conference and institute division of the university, helped to write a proposal to the W.K. Kellogg Foundation for assistance in building the center. The first proposal was answered with a grant from the Kellogg Quality of Rural Life Program which was to be used to improve rural communities in the areas of health, arts, libraries or learning services.
The following year the committee wrote a second proposal and received a grant to build the center from the Kellogg Foundation, Holmes said.
However, the grant was not enough to completely build the complex and other benefactors were sought. Among them was the Eccles family.
Holmes said the ECC was built completely by private funds, but the other two structures in the complex required bonds to complete. The center was dedicated in 1981.
“Obviously we are greatly appreciative of them [the Eccles family],” Holmes said.
At the time the center was built, the Kellogg company had helped build several other learning centers around the nation with one outside the country located in Oxford, England, he said.
Many of the rooms in the building have been named for other organizations who donated to the construction. On the third floor, Woodruff said the Tupperware company has a couple of rooms.
But it was the Eccles family who helped make the building a reality.
“The Eccles family have been very benevolent to education in Utah,” Holmes said.
Their influence can be seen at many of the universities around the state.
“We definitely wouldn’t be where we are without their contributions,” Woodruff said.
The newest element in the web came with the opening of the ESLC this fall.
James MacMahon, vice president for advancement at USU, said the ESLC was in the planning stages for five years. The Eccles foundation came into the project four years ago.
The original grant application was written to the George S. and Dolores Dore Eccles Foundation which provided the university with a challenge grant of $3 million. The grant came with the expectation the funds would be met by other donors. MacMahon said other members of the family as well as other benefactors came forward with the funds to build the science center.
“It was decided to call it the Eccles center to recognize the entire family,” he said.
The main difference between the two centers is the use. Woodruff said the ECC is not mainly a traditional student facility. The center is used mostly by the Extension and Continuing Education programs while the ESLC is a classroom setting for daily student use.
Woodruff said the center is used mainly by conferences that come in and rent the area.
“It’s people coming here for a week or three days as an extension of their education,” she said.