University administrators, students and faculty members gathered Friday to dedicate the South Lawn, an event that represented the culmination of a project more than 10 years in the making.\nPlans to build the South Lawn were first conceived during the late 1990s. The official groundbreaking was celebrated in 2006, and the entire complex opened for the fall 2010 semester.
A crowd gathered at the terrace crossing of the South Lawn for an hour-long ceremony celebrating the project. The event featured speeches from President Teresa A. Sullivan, Gov. Bob McDonnell, College Foundation Board of Trustees President Locke Ogens, University Rector John Wynne, College Dean Meredith Woo, fourth-year College student Jeffrey Webb and two primary donors for the project, University alumni David Gibson and John Nau.
Woo called the project a huge achievement for the College, one that will help build a brighter future for the school.
"We commit ourselves to the future that the South Lawn promises, and we do so with some urgency," Woo said. She emphasized the challenges the College will face now and in the future, including technological challenges and economic difficulties.
Woo also talked about the South Lawn as a continuation of Thomas Jefferson's original vision that the Lawn would have an open view at its southern end. That vision changed with the 1895 Rotunda fire, which prompted the construction of Cabell, Rouss and Cocke Halls, closing off the south end of the Lawn.
"By dedicating the South Lawn today, we also open up, in our minds, the Lawn, and with it the future," Woo said.
In her remarks, Sullivan emphasized how the University should remain mindful of its past while always looking ahead to its future.
The South Lawn, she said, represents a modern technological space where students and faculty can come together to learn. The new space will allow for "important collaborations among disciplines," Sullivan said, urging the donors present to "think about the generations of students who will benefit" from their generosity.
McDonnell called the project one of the most profound changes to occur on central Grounds in the past century. McDonnell also emphasized the importance of higher education, which he labeled "the great equalizer."
On behalf of current College students, Webb addressed the leading donors and organizers of the South Lawn project, thanking them for their efforts.
"You have given us, and those students who will follow us, the space for creation," he said, noting that this would be a space for "maintaining the promise of what a liberal arts education is meant to be."
The ceremony was also a celebration of the large donations of John and Barbara Nau and David Gibson, which were honored with the naming of Nau and Gibson Halls. Nau, a 1968 graduate of the College, served as president of The College Foundation from 2003-06 and called the South Lawn project "an endeavor that I was proud to be a part of." Nau emphasized that the project will give students a "safe, contemporary, and engaging space" where they can develop key relationships with faculty members. He also challenged the University to make further improvements to the College, striving especially to lower the student-faculty ratio.
Gibson, a 1962 graduate of the College and a 1965 Law School alumnus graduate of the Law School, said the South Lawn was "an important step of renewal for the College" and only the beginning of improvements for the school. Gibson has been a long-time supporter of the University, working as a founding sponsor and trustee of The College Foundation.
"We are engaged in sustaining an institution that is one of the great messengers of the ethos of a people," he said.
The ceremony concluded with an unveiling of respective dedication plaques for Nau and Gibson Halls, a ribbon-cutting ceremony to officially dedicate the South Lawn and a performance of the University alma mater by the Virginia Gentlemen.
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