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SpeechesNew Life for McAllister Building
Graham B. Spanier
Good afternoon and welcome to this Millennium Society event and to the revived McAllister Building, home to our Department of Mathematics, an integral part of the Eberly College of Science. September 10, 2005 I want you to know that you are attending a premiere celebration. You are the first guests at the first event to be held in this newly renovated facility. I've probably just made you feel like you were in your elderly aunt's house--the one who ALWAYS put plastic on her furniture--but this building was reconstructed to take a little wear and tear. We knew students would be using it. Please be sure to look around and take one of the informal tours that are being offered. It is fitting that the completion of the renovation of the McAllister Building occurred during the University's sesquicentennial year, because this structure is historically significant to Penn State. Not only is this 100-year-old building the site of a number of groundbreaking discoveries, it also bears the name of a man who had a hand in the founding of Penn State. In fact, Hugh Nelson McAllister is credited for coming up with the idea of creating a school for farmers. He helped write the charter for Penn State and was one of three men who signed a personal guarantee that Centre Countians would raise $10,000 to establish the school here. He was the one who convinced local ironmaster James Irvin to donate 200 acres for the location of the school and he went before the Legislature to plead his case for $50,000 (and let me tell you, that is no easy task). He is the designer of the original Old Main and during the Panic of 1857, in which a number of banks collapsed, Hugh McAllister gave substantial amounts of money from his own pocket to keep Old Main construction on track. He headed up a committee to reorganize the curriculum, was a voracious fundraiser and served on the Board of Trustees for 18 years from the University's founding until his death in 1873. Hugh McAllister was a man of many talents. His son-in-law, General James A. Beaver, governor of Pennsylvania and namesake of Beaver Stadium, said this of McAllister: "If work was to be done, if advice was sought, if difficulties were to be met, if friction was to be eliminated, if parents and friends were to be mollified, if creditors were to be appeased, the labor fell upon Hugh McAllister's shoulders." Breathing new life into McAllister Building is a tangible tribute to Hugh McAllister. Without him, Penn State as we know it, would not exist. This building also is a tribute to the strength of our College of Science and the Department of Mathematics. The yearlong renovation of this building--which has served as both a men's dormitory and a women's dormitory--has transformed both the interior and exterior and allows faculty and students to enjoy a more comfortable teaching, learning, and research environment. In this environment, intellectual thoughts will be hatched, theories will be put forward, and discovery and knowledge will flourish -- as it always has in our Department of Mathematics. I hope you have the opportunity this evening to see the beautiful new facilities, such as those for Pritchard Laboratory, one of only about 10 experimental laboratories in mathematics departments in the country. In this lab, our faculty can study the propagation of waves across the ocean surface or discover insights into how structures bend and break upon impact. Researching and teaching such advanced subjects as dynamics, number theory, differential equations, geometry, and mathematical physics in this 100-year-old building is quite an accomplishment when you consider that 100 years ago, Albert Einstein proposed the theory of relativity; the average life expectancy was 47 years old; and only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school. New facilities at Penn State, which you can see going up across campus, including the new Life Sciences and Chemistry buildings, are necessary to keep our students and faculty members in the forefront of discovery and innovation. It is particularly critical in the rapidly changing area of the sciences that we remain on the cutting edge with our facilities. Because mathematics underlies every facet of science and technology, it is my hope that this newly refurbished McAllister Building will over the next 100 years inspire our students and faculty to accomplish even greater feats and to continue to uncover the vibrant and valuable secrets of math. With the help of interested and supportive individuals like those in this room, Penn State has been able to maintain its competitive edge and attract some of the best faculty and students. On behalf of the University and the Eberly College of Science, I thank you for your continued support. |
