January 13, 2016
Today is an important day at Virginia Wesleyan College. We will officially break ground on the 40,000-square-foot Greer Environmental Sciences Center. I invite our campus community to gather at the building site next to Blocker Hall at 2:00 p.m. this afternoon, if your schedule permits. We will have the ceremonial groundbreaking and commemorative photographs at that time.
The Greer Environmental Sciences
Center will be an impressive facility which will provide unprecedented
state-of-the-art instructional and laboratory opportunities for our students. It
will also help to expand our regional collaborations with organizations such as
the Virginia Aquarium, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the Virginia Institute
of Marine Science (VIMS).
This new facility will be organized
thematically around the earth’s four spheres—atmosphere, hydrosphere,
lithosphere and biosphere—and will feature sophisticated indoor and outdoor
learning spaces that embody “science on display” and promote hands-on
experiences, interactive learning and interdisciplinary research. And, the College's Chesapeake Bay
watershed location in the world's largest estuary, positions us for a
signature program in environmental science, with incredible opportunities for
our students and graduates to contribute substantially to environmentally
progressive policies and research.
The Greer Environmental Sciences Center honors
former president Billy Greer’s advocacy for the sciences and commitment to
sustainability. It also marks the College's declaration to society and the
larger academic community that Virginia Wesleyan is resolved to be a premier
liberal arts college in the field of environmental science.
That is the vision cast by the donor who is making this Center a reality- and who has long believed that Virginia Wesleyan is a College of consequence.
That is the vision cast by the donor who is making this Center a reality- and who has long believed that Virginia Wesleyan is a College of consequence.
I have no doubt that the Greer Environmental Sciences Center will serve as the catalyst for Virginia Wesleyan College in achieving premier national standing in the study of the environmental sciences within the broader liberal arts context.
This is a watershed moment in the life of Virginia Wesleyan and the Hampton Roads community. It is a time to celebrate the College’s future and the legacy of the Greer family. It is a prescient moment for a very thoughtful and generous donor and friend of the College. I am as excited as I am privileged to be a part of this realized idea at this remarkable College.
I want to express gratitude to the donor who made this
project possible and to Hourigan Construction Company, Mark Hourigan,
President, and Chris Brandt, Executive Vice President, and VMDO, Joe Atkins, Project Architect, and Dade Van
Der Werf, Project Manager, for their leadership in bringing this project to
fruition.
Like all of you, I look forward with great
anticipation to the construction of this impressive facility over the next 18
months and to its scheduled completion in the summer of 2017.
It’s
a great day to be a Marlin!
