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Show Weber. State Comment, Fall 1990 ‘ Alumni Center construction begins Construction of the Weber State Alumni Center symbolizes the start of significant alumni efforts for the betterment of the institution, former WSC President Stephen D. Nadauld told those gathered for groundbreaking ceremonies. The college officially began construction of the new Alumni Center with the July ground breaking at which Dr. Nadauld was the keynote speaker. “We are building, with this building, a foundation for a great alumni work. The time has come when the Alumni Association can make a great impact on the future of this institution,” Dr. Nadauld told the approximately 50 people gathered. The one-story building designed to have a residential character will be located south of the college on a hill overlooking campus. The center, once completed, will include office and reception areas, a kitchen, small library, and gardens. . Funding for the $625,000 building has come entirely from alumni and friends of the campus, said John Lindquist, vice chairman of the WSC Institutional Council. “The thing that’s great is that we’ve accomplished what we have strictly from donations from alumni and interested individuals,” Lindquist said. Although the college has not raised the entire amount needed for the center, enough funds were given to pay construction costs, Lindquist said. : Center of Chemistry established John Lindquist, vice chairman of the WSC Institutional Council, speaks at ground-breaking ceremonies. ‘“‘We have enough to build, but not enough to embellish. We need furniture, pianos, kitchen equipment and the like,” he said. Campus officials have worked towards an alumni center for the past few years, but have only recently selected an appropriate site and raised sufficient funds, said Dr. Nadauld. “It’s the special nature of men to see and conceptualize into the future. We owe a lot to those who have been willing to work at making reality out of their visions,” he said. The center is scheduled for completion in May 1991 and will house alumni offices. In addition, the center will be used for both campus and community receptions. The WSC chemistry department has received a $74,000 grant from the Utah Centers of Excellence program to establish a Center of Chemical Technology on campus. The chemistry center is the second such center established at the college—first was the Center for Aerospace Technology (CAST)—and comes because of the institution’s excellence in applied chemical technology, said G. Michael Alder, director of the Utah Centers of Excellence program. “We received a large number of proposals, but Weber State emerged as a real winner,” Alder said. re The $74,000 is for the 1990-91 academic year, with two more years of funding scheduled. The total state contribution could equal $299,000 over the three-year - period, Alder said. “This Center of Excellence grant legitimizes what we’ve been doing all along,” said Dr. Edward B. Walker, director of the center. “For many years we have played a supporting role in helping companies solve problems in chemical areas.” The center’s focus will be economic development to Utah and the transfer of technology developed at the college into industry. Most important will be the opportunities afforded students, he said. ““We’re very glad for the grant and glad for the slap on the back that says, ‘Go for it. Run,’” Dr. Walker said. re SUCCESS Continued from page 1 oe ay a] iad "75 Now these two goals may not seem impossible for many, but if you knew what kind of a student I was in high school you would know why an M.B.A. seemed like a long-shot for me. I graduated from Ogden High School with a grade point average that just crept over the required two point average. I saw my share of D’s in high school. And I must confess that, as a result, I almost dreaded going to college because of fear of failure. My second goal of playing basketball at a four-year college seemed even more impossible because I didn’t even make my “Realize your potential, set high goals, and act as if you can do it. These are prerequisites of success.” high school basketball team. The odds are about 100 to one for those who actually played in high school to make a college team. And, since I didn’t play in high school, I thought I had better start out at a junior college. I remember sitting in the locker room during the first day of tryouts at Dixie College. The coach went around the room and introduced everyone, reciting all of their accomplishments. There were several AllState players and even a high school AllAmerican. When he came to me, he said, “This is Nolan Archibald.” Period. The silence was deafening while he tried to think of what to say about me. Finally, almost apologetically, he said, ““Well, he didn’t play in high school, but he believes he can play college ball.” I soon realized that believing was the easy part and that additional effort would be essential in achieving my goals. It almost makes me stiff remembering those long, three-mile runs and the weight-lifting program I put myself through to get in as good physical shape as those I was competing against. I remember coming to practice alone, an hour early every day, just to work on the fundamentals I had missed in high school. But in the end, my efforts paid off. I made all the cuts and ended up as the starting center on the Dixie College basketball team. We were lucky enough to go all the way to the National Junior College Championships. We didn’t win, but the national exposure led to over 100 scholarship offers from major universities all over the country. I selected Weber State College. After nearly 3,000 hours of work, persistence and practice, an impossible dream had become a reality. Since my formula had gotten me to the division-one level at Weber State, I began to set my sights even higher. I decided I eventually wanted to play in the N.B.A., so I worked harder. I played two to three hours a day, six days a week, all year round, to get every aspect of the game down pat. I got lucky once again: Weber State won the Big Sky Conference Championship that year and we went to the NCAA playoffs for the first time in the college’s history. That year I had another stroke of luck: Our coach, Dick Motta, became coach of the Chicago Bulls, and he subsequently invited me to try out for the team. But, I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me back-track a few years and tell you about my je second goal. I was apprehensive as a college freshman about my ability to succeed academically. I worked my tail off that first quarter and got all B’s out of sheer fright. By the end of my first year I was a B student and was completely satisfied with that until I met my wife in my sophomore year. Margaret comes from a very academic-minded family. She was nearly a straight A student, and I was never so dissatisfied with B’s in all my life. My roommate was also an A student. One night we talked about A and B students. He told me the only difference between an A and a B student is mental attitude. — He might not have know it but he was paraphrasing the great psychologist, William James, who was author of the great “As If” principle which says that if you want a virtue, act as if you already have it. In his book on leadership, Sterling W. Sill put this idea a slightly different way. He said, “Our mental and physical faculties are like servants. They always serve us with exactly what we request. If we act as though we expect to be a ‘nobody’ life assumes that we are earnest and grants our request.” This “As If” principle does not suggest being something you’re not, but working to be the person you want to become. I began to do everything as if I were an A student. I studied like one. I participated in class like one. I prepared for final exams like one. And, by the end of the quarter, I was one: When the time came for graduate school, I applied and was accepted to Harvard. I have to admit that I had this nagging feeling that _ everyone else in my class had gotten in on pure ability and there must have been a computer error in my case. I quickly found that close to 80 percent of my classmates felt the same way. Someone captured our |