Westminster gets new student center

The new building is home to a banquet and meeting center, bookstore, theater and cyber cafe.
& lt;a href=mailto:milliken@vindy.com & gt;By PETER MILLIKEN & lt;/a & gt;
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
NEW WILMINGTON, Pa. -- Westminster College's new Andrew J. McKelvey Campus Center will serve as a focal point and showcase for students, faculty and visitors.
"It provides opportunities for the students to have a place to come and gather that's large enough to accommodate a good number of students," said Linda P. Domanski, assistant professor of education. The previous student union could only accommodate about 50 to 75 students.
"Here they have a place to call their own. They can come. They can study. They can have small rooms for conferences. Student organizations are all here, and this is truly a student center," she added.
"I'm sure the Andrew McKelvey Campus Center will become the true center of Westminster's campus," said Amanda B. Kengersky, a member of this year's graduating class, during Friday's dedication.
Monster Worldwide CEO
The $14 million building is named for a 1957 graduate of the college who donated $3 million toward the project. McKelvey is chief executive officer of Monster Worldwide, the on-line recruitment leader and parent company of Monster.com.
In 1967, McKelvey founded Telephone Marketing Programs, which focused on yellow pages advertising and eventually captured 30 percent of that market nationally.
In 1995, TMP acquired TheMonster Board and Online Career Center, two of the first 1,000 commercial sites on the World Wide Web.
Today, TMP Worldwide, of which McKelvey is chairman and CEO, has revenues of more than $1 billion and more than 10,000 employees serving more than 156,000 clients in 32 nations.
"In this country, when you make money, you have a responsibility to give it back," McKelvey told the crowd. "In trying to give it back, I thought the way to do it would be to make a difference in a child's life because the kids are the future of America."
The words, "Envision what lies beyond the status quo," are inscribed on the building's dedication plaque. "I really think that's important. I think you've got to challenge everything in your life," McKelvey said.
The building
The three-story brick and sandstone building features a sky-lighted atrium and is bathed in sunlight through south-facing picture windows overlooking the campus quadrangle.
It contains a banquet and meeting center seating more than 300 people, and has its own kitchen and a theater and lecture hall with videoconferencing technology and campus radio and TV broadcasting facilities.
It also features the college bookstore, mailroom, cyber cafe, a faculty lounge, classrooms, career center and student affairs offices and many student organization offices.
"Gratitude is the word of the day, and we want to spread it as far and wide as we can," said R. Thomas Williamson, college president.
Construction of the center will be fully funded when all pledges are paid, and it comes with a $1 million endowment for its maintenance and utilities, Williamson said.