The
promise of the new James L. Welch Hall on campus, primarily a hub for the
University’s information technology, came closer to reality with the
Sept. 20 groundbreaking ceremony.
The first state-funded building in nearly a quarter-century, it is named after the late faculty member and administrator James L. Welch. The four-story building is planned to house the School of Health, Student Services, the Computer Center, and Administration. With 115,000 accessible square feet, the structure will be built directly north of the Student Health Center and Parking Lot 3A.
Dignitaries donned hard hats and grabbed golden shovels to turn the earth, a symbolic act of what’s to come. President James E. Lyons, Sr. and Chancellor Charles B. Reed joined an unprecedented number of CSU Board of Trustees members attending an on-campus event, including Daniel Cartwright, Dr. Debra S. Ferrar, Dr. Murray L. Galinson, Harold Goldwhite, Chair Laurence K. Gould, Jr., Neel I. "Bubba" Murarka, and Ralph Pescueira.
Also in action were members of the James L. Welch Family Trust, including Dr. Margaret Blue, Dr. Robert Dowling, Micahel Kahan and Julio Soto.
Members of the
CSUDH President’s Advisory Board also attended: Norman
Houston, Chuck Porter and Gil Smith. Additionally, City of Carson commissioners
Bill Brown and Sybil Brown, City of Carson City Manager Jerry Groomes; and
President
of Cerritos College, Dr. Morgan Lynn attended.
The event also drew support from other elected officials including Council member of the City of Gardena Steve Bradfield; Representing Congresswoman Juanita Millender-McDonald, Mary Amos; Representing Congressman Steven Kuykendall, Bob McCaman; representing Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, Del Huff; and Representing Long Beach Councilwoman Jenny Oropeza, Sharon Weissman.
Moreover, students, faculty, staff, and administrators from CSUDH attended the groundbreaking, at which President Lyons and CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed each spoke.
Lyons
said that James Welch Hall reflects the facts that the university is advancing
to meet the needs of the communities it serves and accommodate its growth
in enrollment.
Reed praised the university for its "magnificent" success in securing support for the new facility. "The next time I visit, I want to turn the key in the door," he said.
Those who knew Welch say it is appropriate that the facility named after him will accommodate teaching and administrative functions while housing technology with an eye to the future: For nearly a quarter-century, Welch was about all three.
He viewed higher education as more than acquiring knowledge. He saw the university as a portal to improving one’s standard of living, and saw the mission of the California State University as providing students the opportunity to improve themselves, their families and their communities as quality citizens and informed consumers.
Welch began teaching at CSU Dominguez Hills in 1974. Health sciences were his specialty, having received a bachelor of science in 1968 from Southern Oregon State College, before earning a bachelor of science in 1969, a master’s degree in public health in 1972, and a doctorate in health science in 1974 — all from Loma Linda University.
At CSUDH, Welch was a founding faculty member of the Clinical Science Department and founder of the Occupational Therapy program. He served also as chair of the Department of Clinical Sciences and as associate dean of the School of Health.
In addition, Welch was chair of the Faculty Academic Senate for two terms, chaired many of the Senate’s major committees including Faculty Policy and Education Policy, and served as a faculty mentor in the Faculty Mentoring program.
But, for all his times spent helping to write policy, chairing important meetings, and debating and deciding education issues, Welch never seemed to forget the purpose of teaching and learning:
"The
students are what motivated him," recalls long-time Welch colleague Margaret
Blue, director, University Advisement Center [and member of the Welch Trust].
"He believed that whatever he could do to benefit students was what the
university was about and should be about."
Welch worked as an academic advisor in the University Advisement Center. If he seemed demanding as a teacher, he strove to give back as a mentor to students, often investing large amounts of his personal time. Moreover, he never tired of helping his students succeed in their presentations at state conferences in the Clinical Sciences and in other Health-related fields.
"His ability to work with students, and his ability to help them get ahead, is really what he was about as an educator," Blue says. "He believed that he succeeded if they succeeded."
His investment of time and energy can be seen in the Occupational Therapy Program, which is geared to increasing opportunities for students in health care. Welch geared his efforts to steering this program from concept to reality. It was crucial to him to succeed, because there are so few programs in this specialty area, and none as affordable as the one at CSUDH.
Welch’s final gift to the students at CSUDH was an endowed scholarship for students in health-related fields — and the funds that will now help make James L. Welch Hall a reality.
About the Building
Scheduled for completion in October 2002, the four-story James L. Welch Hall will be used, on the first floor, for computer-based instruction, including five mediated-instruction classrooms, nine computer-based laboratories, two workstation rooms and a 250-seat symposium center. The second floor will offer "One Stop Shopping" for students, centralized services that include financial aid, registration, course application and transcripts. The third floor will house the School of Health and the fourth floor administrative offices currently on the fifth floor of the Educational Resources Center (ERC).
The project architect, Charlene J. Dekker of Daniel, Mann, Johnson & Mendenhall of Los Angeles, was on hand for the groundbreaking ceremony along with Dana McManus and Kurt Whaley, CEO and Senior Vice President, respectively, of S.J. Amoroso Construction Co.
Scheduled for completion in October 2002, the project architect of James L. Welch Hall is Charlene J. Dekker, of Daniel, Mann, Johnson & Mendenhall of Los Angeles. Projected cost of the structure is $25,497,000. The contractor is S. J. Amoroso Construction Co., Inc. of Foster City, with offices in Costa Mesa.
- T.W.
