The alumni association at USC has been hoping for a permanent home almost since its founding, and they have finally found one.
After years of waiting, the new alumni center will open in summer 2015 in the Vista. The more than 60,000 square foot building will be located on the corner of Lincoln and Senate Streets.
“Sometimes you just have to wait until the right time, and this is the right time,” Jancy Houck, vice president for development and alumni relations for the University of South Carolina, said. “The dream of building an alumni center on this campus is probably two decades old, and volunteers and alumni with the alumni center have been dreaming about this for a very, very long time.”
The $26.64 million in funds were raised privately, and the space will be used for meetings of all sizes, teleconferences, sit-down dinners for up to 500 people and weddings and anniversary parties. Jack Claypoole, executive director of My Carolina, referred to it as a “cross between a meeting and conference facility and a high-end club for Gamecocks.”
For employees at the alumni association, it was hard to patiently wait until the groundbreaking in November 2013, much less until the opening next summer.
“Once we knew it was a reality, it’s hard not to want it open today,” Claypoole said.
In fact, Claypoole and Houck see a permanent location for the alumni center as an important piece of the university that has been missing for a long time.
According to Claypoole, even university advocates such as Thomas Cooper, have argued that it is the “responsibility of the alumni to be the guardians and the protectors of the university.” That becomes much easier with a physical home.
“As the president [of the university] likes to say, every great university has a great alumni center,” Houck said. “And our university is one of a few that are one of the national prominence that we have and the alumni base that we have that doesn’t actually have a physical space devoted to and for alumni.”
The new alumni center will provide a home base for the alumni of the school. Claypoole, as an alumnus himself, knows firsthand the desire former students have to connect with their university.
“It’s a place for alumni to begin reconnecting with the university. Clearly this is a different university than when I went here,” Claypoole said. “There’s a lot of great things going on, a lot of great things to see. It’s obviously a different and far more vibrant university than in the past.”