College Center
Jean & Jerry L. Beasley Student Center
Opened on February 5, 1963 under the direction of Edward C. Lowe, Jr. and dedicated on May 5, 1963, the College Center, a $1.6 million dollar facility financed by a loan from the Federal Housing and Home Agency and designed to serve as the nucleus of campus activities, when completed contained a large central dining hall, a private dining room, a snack bar, student lounges, a game room with ten bowling lanes, a book store, an alumni lounge paneled in the pines that formerly occupied the site, conference rooms, offices for certain activities, two private guest rooms, and a large ball room to be used for dances, exhibits, and meetings. This new center of student activities replaced the previous Student Union which was established in 1943 in the former history library and its adjoining room on the first floor of the administration building’s auditorium wing. In 2008, the College Center was renamed the Jerry L. Beasley Student Center in honor of the former president, and in 2012 was renamed the Jean & Jerry L. Beasley Student Center.
