This year A&T’s celebration of American Education Week set the stage for the long anticipated groundbreaking ceremony at the site of the future James C. Renick School of Education Building.

On Nov. 8, students, faculty, staff, alumni and supporters gathered at the site of the new education building on the corner of Bluford and Daniel streets for the groundbreaking ceremony.

The ceremony, held to honor Chancellor Renick and his accomplishments, was facilitated by the students and administrators of the School of Education. The event was hosted by Kelly Gadsden, a senior special education major and the president of Kappa Delta PI Education Honor Society.

“I was shocked and privileged that my name even came up to preside over such an exciting and just big event for the school of education and also for Chancellor James Renick. I was just happy that I was chosen to preside,” Gadsden said.

Guest speakers at the groundbreaking included Carolyn Meyers, the university provost, Velma Speight Buford, the chair of the Board of Trustees, Leila Vickers, the dean of the school of education, and Phillip Freelon, an architect and the president of the Freelon Group.

The Freelon Group is the architectural firm in charge of constructing this facility and has built others such as Smith Hall, the General Classroom Building, and the new science building.

Freelon said that he feels like apart of the Aggie family because of his firm’s longstanding, working relationship with A&T.

“(I feel as though) I am an honorary Aggie,” Freelon said.

All of the guest speakers had positive things to say about Chancellor Renick and the impact he has made on the university over the past six years. They made special reference to his support of the improvement efforts made by the leaders of the school of education.

“(We are here to celebrate) the priority and commitment Chancellor Renick has made to the teacher education program at North Carolina A&T,” Vickers said. “At the local, state and national level, Chancellor Renick has been very supportive of teacher education, so it’s in this context that we dubbed him education chancellor.”

In his acknowledgements, the chancellor conveyed his pride and faith in A&T as a long standing institution.

“I am so honored to be a part of, a small part of, this institution that is 114 years old. And as corporations come and go and as institutions come and go, one thing you can bet your money on (is that) North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University is going to be here in perpetuity,” Renick said.

He appeared humbled by the honor and expressed his love for, commitment and thanks to A&T.

“After encountering our graduates, our students, our faculty and staff, and Greensboro, N.C., I have been caught up in a love affair for the past six and a half, seven years that is incomparable,” Renick said. “This, today, the naming of this structure after me really represents a multi-generational commitment to ensuring that we continue to be an educated society- Inside of this building, that kind of work is going to take place.”

Renick’s sentiments were echoed by others in attendance throughout the presentation. In his speech, the former chair of the board of trustees, Gerald Truesdale also championed the idea of an increased commitment to education. Truesdale suggested that the construction of the new education building is not only indicative of the chancellor’s commitment, but of the nationwide effort to support education initiatives.

“Education is at the forefront of this country and unless we support education we will lag behind,” Truesdale said.

There was a strong presence of members of the teacher’s education program at the event. This indicated that the occasion also marked the growth and improvement of the standards set for students and graduates of the school of education. It was a celebration of the hard work of the school’s faculty and their efforts to ascertain a technologically compatible facility for their students.

“The initiative to construct this facility was prompted by a need for a larger facility to accommodate the enrollment in the school of education and to have a facility that would accommodate technology-At this time, the wiring, the electrical wiring in this building (Hodgin Hall) cannot accommodate the use of technology- meaning all the computers, copiers, scanners, etc. cannot be accommodated,” Vickers said.

According to Vickers, the administration of the school of education, the members of the Board of Trustees and Renick have worked for two years to secure the necessary funds to move forward with construction of the new education facility.

“We have been in the planning stages (for this project) for approximately two years. We had to identify the funds and then the building had to be designed,” Vickers said. “The funds( for this project) are going to come from Title 3, which is a federal funded initiative for historical black colleges and universities, and then from funds left over from the bond inititiave-approximately $14 million.”

Construction on the James C. Renick School of Education Building is scheduled to begin in the coming weeks. The building will be three stories in height and house 12 classrooms, 21 conference rooms, and 81 faculty offices.

There will be a small parking lot and it will share a parking lot with Webb Hall. The building will be ready for occupancy in the spring of 2007.

Though construction of the facility is Freelon’s responsibility, the task of naming it was left to the Board of Trustees.

According to Vickers, the process by which Renick was selected as the honoree began with his name being submitted to the Board of Trustees. The members of the board then considered his contributions to the university and his support of teacher education. Based on those criteria, they decided to dedicate the new education building to Renick.

“I was overwhelmed (when informed about the board of trustees’ decision). I’m an educator and you get into this kind of work because you’re passionate about what you are doing-When you start out as a teacher, you never think of someone recognizing you like this, so it’s overwhelming,” Renick said.

• Michele Matthews