President Joanne V. Creighton's Remarks
at the Reopening of Blanchard

	FRED LEBLANC
	President Creighton cuts the ribbon at the official reopening of the Blanchard Campus Center.

When it opened 103 years ago, as now, it was considered innovative and state of the art. Then it was a prototype gymnasium: complete with a running track, trophy rooms, dressing rooms, bathing rooms, and two bowling alleys of regulation length. The Gym, as it was called, was also used for mixers and theatricals, foreshadowing things to come.

Especially innovative at the turn of the 20^th century was the building’s heating system that brought in outside air and warmed it so that "young ladies" would not get a chill --even though that might have been hard to do in their wool exercise suits. (Now, of course, the innovation is to bring in the hot and muggy outside air and cool it so that you can drink your cappacinos and lattes in air-conditioned comfort.)

The original Mount Holyoke students had a way to cool down, however: this was in the Gym’s innovative showers (which received much fanfare) in which 48 young ladies could bath simultaneously with a carefully regulated temperature starting at 105 and reducing to 60 or below. (Sorry, you have to go elsewhere for your cold showers now.)

Fifty years later, with Kendall’s completion, the old gym was filled with offices and renamed Blanchard, after Elizabeth Blanchard, Class of 1858. It was under President Blanchard’s tenure from 1883-1889 that the seminary became a College, and for that we are deeply in her debt.

In 1988, Blanchard was again reinvented and the students of Mount Holyoke saw their long-sought-after "campus center" become a reality. It was a good attempt, but not complete.

That completion you see now: utterly transformed, transformed utterly, this student center has become what it always aspired to be. Blanchard is the center, literally and figuratively of this campus. It is at the hub: it links upper and lower campus, connecting the historic greens and the lakes. We hope and expect that it will draw us all together as a community and be a vibrant place to welcome visitors as well. It’s the campus living room, and dining room, and rec room. It is the place where community is manifest and celebrated.

Like all of our recent building projects, this building is a felicitous blend of historical preservation and new construction: it is at once classic and with-it.

While this success is due to many people whom we will thank in a moment, I want to give special thanks to Will Spears, the architect, who also designed the renovated Pratt. Now these two buildings can wink at each other across the great lawn and sometime ice-skating rink. This is a wonderful design, inside and out, as you will all see for yourself.

Such a project involves the work and commitment of many people on and off campus. I want to particularly thank my colleagues, Vice President for Finance and Administration, Mary Jo Maydew, and John Bryant, Director of Facilities Management, and all of his dedicated staff who have worked so hard on this project.

This project is not just about the building, it’s also about the Dining Program, and I want to express my deep thanks to Dale Hennessey and all the Dining Services staff for their dedicated work planning this facility. What splendid new quarters they have.

And all through it all Rochelle Calhoun, who was the Acting Dean of the College and now Director of the Alumnae Association, who participated creatively in all of that, along with many students and staff.

Now, the moment has come. It is with great pleasure that I look forward to cutting this ribbon, inviting you inside to look around and, later, after the picnic, to come inside and have dessert. To the opening of Blanchard, long may she flourish as our Campus Center and may we have it right for many decades to come.