The New Library at Washington State University in Pullman has a new name — the Terrell Library — in honor of W. Glenn Terrell, former WSU president.
The WSU Board of Regents approved the name change at its regularly scheduled meeting held Friday in Seattle.
WSU President V. Lane Rawlins said the naming of the library was a suitable acknowledgement both of Terrell’s love of learning and of the close connections he built with WSU students.
“The Terrell Mall was named for him because it was a place where students interact and where the university classroom is extended. It was also the area where Glenn got to meet and converse with students almost every day on his walk from the house to the office,” Rawlins said.
“The Terrell Library connects the mall to one of the university’s most important learning centers. It is a fitting tribute to a man whose life has been devoted to the connection between learning and the real world.”
Rawlins stressed the high aspirations that Terrell set for the university during his presidency, which ran from 1967 to 1985. He cited Terrell’s dedication to the concept of WSU as the “state’s university,” his recognition of the important role that science and technology must play at WSU, his role in establishing the WSU Foundation and his unfailing optimism and graciousness as parts of the former president’s legacy at WSU.
Rawlins said he talked earlier this week with Terrell, who greatly appreciated the honor.
The New Library was opened as an addition to the Holland Library in 1994. Until a planned renovation is completed at the Holland Library, the single entrance to the two buildings will be signed as “Holland and Terrell Libraries.”
In other action, the regents approved:
· renaming the WSU Vancouver Student Bookstore as the Firstenburg Student Commons, in honor of Ed and Mary Firstenburg who are donors to the university;
· authority to negotiate and execute a lease with Battelle/Pacific Northwest National Laboratories, which will occupy part of the Biosciences Engineering Laboratory to be built on the WSU Tri-Cities campus;
· a ground lease between WSU and the USDA/Agricultural Research Service for the site of a research building to be built with federal funding on the WSU Pullman campus;
· the beginning of pre-design work for a 65,000 square-foot classroom building to be built at WSU Vancouver;
· the sale of property in Honolulu that was given to WSU by the Gladys Moss estate. The sale price is $2.15 million.
Rawlins participated in Thursday’s regents committee meetings and Friday’s board meeting, the first official university functions he has attended since undergoing ankle fusion surgery in late October.
The next WSU Board of Regents meeting is scheduled for Jan. 27, 2006 in Pullman.
