The Alumni and visitors center will be built north of the N. Eldon Tanner Building on West Campus Drive, where it will welcome all to the university.
TO create a warm and inviting front gate for campus and to honor the living prophet, BYU president Cecil O. Samuelson has announced the university’s plan to construct the Gordon B. Hinckley Alumni and Visitors Center. The center will welcome the world to BYU and will be built, operated, and maintained entirely with donations from BYU alumni and friends.
The BYU Board of Trustees approved the building’s development phase in October 2005. The facility will be built where the Alumni House now stands, where it will greet alumni, friends, and other visitors who come to campus. Although building plans are still taking shape, the Gordon B. Hinckley Alumni and Visitors Center will likely include three floors above ground and will feature an architectural design that communicates warmth and hospitality. The center will house university organizations related to alumni and external relations, such as the Alumni Association and Public Affairs and Guest Relations.
“Thanks to superb students, faculty, and programs, BYU draws visitors from across the world in greater numbers than ever before,” says President Samuelson. “We look forward to preparing a setting that introduces these guests to the marvelous history and mission of Brigham Young University.”
Through displays and exhibits within the Gordon B. Hinckley Alumni and Visitors Center, guests will begin to understand why this university was established and how it differs from all others. They will learn about the divinely inspired educational mission of BYU and see how the university relates to the Church of Jesus Christ.
In addition to welcoming guests to campus, the building will serve the thousands of alumni who regularly “come home” to BYU. Here, alumni will find meaningful support services, opportunities to get involved with current students, and a starting point for reconnecting with BYU and former classmates.
Perhaps most significant, the center will stand for generations in remembrance of President Gordon B. Hinckley, who has been an extraordinary ambassador for the Church of Jesus Christ. His life of openness, understanding, and love of the Savior demonstrates the very purposes of this building. According to President Samuelson, “We are grateful the Board of Trustees has allowed BYU to pay tribute to President Hinckley in this way. This gives us all a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to honor President Hinckley by creating a legacy on the campus of Brigham Young University.”
When President Samuelson introduced the undertaking to students during a November campus home evening and invited them to be a part of it, they showed their enthusiasm for honoring the prophet in this way with an ovation that crescendoed after the subsequent announcement that Ira and Mary Lou Fulton would match student contributions (up to $5,000) five to one.
Alumni Association president Carr C. Krueger (BS ’85) thinks BYU alumni will have the same reaction. On behalf of the Alumni Association, Krueger has pledged to raise at least $10 million from BYU alumni to go toward the estimated $35 million project. “BYU sends its alumni out to make a difference in the world, and now it is giving them an opportunity to make a difference right here on campus. What a thrill to be part of something so magnificent!”
To be a part of the Gordon B. Hinckley Alumni and Visitors Center, make your gift online at gbhb.byu.edu or send a check to BYU Annual Fund, P.O. Box 27188, Provo, UT 84602. As a participant, your name (with no donation amount) will appear in a time capsule within the building’s foundation as well as in a donor book housed in the new building and given as a gift to President Hinckley.