Groundbreaking for Cooper Alumni
Center set for Thursday, April 28

(Rain is predicted for Thursday, April 28. Therefore, the ceremonies have been moved to the main floor of the Convocation Center at 10 a.m.)

April 25, 2005--The groundbreaking for the Arkansas State University Alumni Association's new Cooper Alumni Center will be Thursday, April 28, at 10 a.m. The event is open to the public, and all ASU alumni and friends of the university are invited to attend. Parking is available at the Convocation Center adjacent to the site.

The 20,000 square-foot Cooper Alumni Center will be located in the northeast quadrant of the ASU-Jonesboro campus near the lake and across from the current pavilion. The area is known to many ASU alumni as the site of the “old pavilion.” The alumni center will be named for Charlotte and Darrell Cooper of Clarkston, Michigan, who donated a $2 million gift towards its construction. Mr. and Mrs. Cooper will be present for the groundbreaking.

The building will be residential in style, incorporating natural materials and a wide expanse of glass facing the lake. The exterior will be brick and natural stone, with walkways and terraces sloping down to the water. The building design includes offices for the ASU Alumni Association, Inc.; development office, and the ASU Foundation, Inc. 

The Alumni Center will include a room dedicated to ASU history. It will be named the Marlin D. Jackson History Room thanks to a gift from the Jackson family in honor of the late Marlin Jackson '58, the former State Banking Commissioner and an ASU alumnus. The lobby will serve as a reception area, with a lounge overlooking the lake. A banquet room will accommodate seated dinners for more than 200 people.

The Cooper Alumni Center will be convenient to other facilities serving large groups of alumni and visitors to the ASU-Jonesboro campus such as the Convocation Center, Fowler Center, Indian Stadium and the track and field complex. The $5 million Alumni Center will be constructed with private funds, through various levels of naming and gift opportunities. A number of alumni have made pledges ranging from $5,000 to $150,000 toward construction of the facility. These gifts will be recognized publicly when the formal announcements are made. In total, $2.6 million has been committed for the project.

Darrell Cooper ’64, and Charlotte Pugh Cooper, also a 1964 graduate of ASU, are life members of the ASU Alumni Association. In 2000, Mr. Cooper was named a Distinguished Alumnus. “I am grateful for the opportunity and education that attending ASU has afforded me,” said Mr. Cooper. “Many of the buildings and programs at ASU bear the names of people who I never knew, and they never knew me. Yet they contributed to help make an educational opportunity for me and others. I believe it is fitting that I put something back into the system that has not only allowed me to succeed, but has contributed to my success.”

With the number of ASU alumni more than doubling in the past twenty years, the Cooper Alumni Center will give them a place call home when they visit the campus. An ASU alumni center has been under consideration since 1991, when then-ASU President Eugene W. Smith sent a letter to the Alumni Association indicating that the proposed location had been identified through the master planning process. In 2000, serious planning was begun for construction through a series of meetings with key constituencies that will use the facility, including administration, faculty, staff and community leaders.         

The Office of Alumni Relations at ASU was formally organized in 1984, serving fewer than 25,000 alumni. In the fall of 2004, the alumni population was 55,305. Beth Smith is Executive Director of the ASU Alumni Association, with Bob Earwood '80 of Memphis serving as the 2004-05 Association president.

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