College campuses should have “centers of energy” where people gather to socialize, study and have discussions, according to Dr. Michael Shahan, president of Lamar State College-Orange.
“These centers are common to find at four-year colleges,” but not so much at two-year colleges, he said. The new Cypress Center “gives us two more centers of energy that we have not had before,” he said.
Dr. Shahan led the celebration at the dedication of the 32,116 square foot building Friday afternoon.
Dr. Shahan, a former history profession, said “Nobody’s ever accused me of being emotional or excited, but underneath, I’m positively excited” about the building.
The multipurpose center has a flexible space to hold as many as 700 people for lectures and symposiums. The space can be divided into smaller rooms for conferences and meetings. In addition, the space can be used to accommodate up to 400 people for a sit-down dinner or banquet.
Cypress Center also has seven classrooms with the latest in technology, along with offices for the staff. The building provides “the kind of learning environment that our students deserve.”
The building will be available for the community.
Dr. Shahan said the Student Center gymnasium has been used for banquets and meetings, but no matter how it was decorated, it still looked like a gym “and smelled like one.”
He thanked State Senator Robert Nichols and State Representative Dade Phelan for helping get funding for the new building from the state legislature. Nichols was unable to attend. Phelan told the crowd it was good to have the building approved during the 2015 session when money was available because in the 2017 session “you were lucky to get a row of chairs out of Austin.
The Chancellor of the Texas State University System, Dr. Brian McCall, attended along with Rossanna Salazar, chair of the board of regents for the system, attended.
Dr. McCall, playing off Dr. Shahan’s comments, said the president of LSC-O can be like Mount Rushmore, but underneath “he’s all cartwheels and sparklers.”
Dr. Shahan also thanked the non-profit LSC-O Foundation, including the late Corky Harmon, the long-time chair of the foundation, for helping to acquire the property. Foundation board members attending were Gisela Houseman, Ross Smith, David Jones, Stephen Lee and Dr. Shawn Oubre.
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