Hundreds of people gathered on July 21 to celebrate the opening of the Mary Louise Petersen Residence Hall—the University of Iowa’s first new residence hall in more than 40 years, intentionally designed for student success.
UI President Sally Mason, Regents Milt Dakovich and Mary Vermeer Andringa, and a number of other UI administrators, students, and staff packed the residence hall’s multipurpose room to honor Petersen and officially open the building bearing her name. The event also marked Mason’s last public appearance as the UI’s 20th president.
“It’s truly an exciting day for me, the Petersen family, and for Iowa—for Hawkeyes in particular,” says Mason. The UI president has had the opportunity to get to know Petersen quite well, and feels Mary Louise “is the perfect choice to name this important building after.”
Petersen Hall facts and figures
June 2010: Board of Regents approves plans
June 2013: Building construction begins
Floors: 11, including lower level
Space: 178,000 square feet
Student residence rooms: 252
Beds: 501
Residence bathrooms: 97
Study rooms: 6 on main floor, additional 15 on living floors
Electrical outlets: 1,032
Resident Assistants: 18
Living-learning communities: 6
Cost: $53 million
Person-hours to construct: 330,000
Concrete: 6,500 cubic yards, enough to cover the playing field at Kinnick Stadium under more than three feet of concrete
Glass: 27,500 square feet, enough to cover the court at Carver-Hawkeye Arena more than five times
Brick: 39,500 square feet, enough to cover the court at Carver-Hawkeye Arena more than seven times
Sustainability: anticipated to be LEED Silver, with a projected annual energy cost savings of $326,546 over a non-certified building, or 52 percent
Petersen Hall will welcome about 500 Hawkeyes next month. It features a number of gathering areas for students, as well as the Theodore M. Rehder Learning Commons, named after the longtime housing and dining manager, and Black’s Gold Grill, where students can enjoy burgers until midnight. It honors Greg Black, a previous dining director who served 30 years at the UI.
“Petersen Hall was built with three main goals in mind: to give us the additional space for the increasing number of students coming to the university; to give us a large, shared public space that the students in the entire west neighborhood would be able to use; and to meet the needs of today’s students by actively participating in living learning communities,” says Von Stange, assistant vice president for student life and senior director for university housing and dining. “This building will be vibrant with energy, ideas, activities, learning, and service.”
“I am deeply honored that the building is going to hold my name,” says Petersen. “But in truth I’m just a placeholder for many women who have served this institution and served it well, or who have been students here.”
About Mary Louise Petersen
Petersen graduated summa cum laude in 1951 from the University of Iowa College of Education with a bachelor’s degree in science education. As an undergraduate, she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and served as president of her class and president of the Association of University Women.
In 1969, Iowa Gov. Robert D. Ray appointed Petersen to the Board of Regents, where she served as president from 1973 to 1981.
On the national stage, Petersen was appointed to the Carnegie Corporation of New York Board of Trustees and was elected chair of the Board of Directors of the Association of Governing Boards for Colleges and Universities. She served as an adviser to the National Association of College and University Business Officers and on the steering committee for an American Council on Education project on the financial indicators of the condition of higher education.
Petersen and her husband, Rand, have given generously to support university programs, especially the Pentacrest Museums. Their gifts have made possible the Mary Louise Petersen Chair in Higher Education in the College of Education, and the Walter and Margaret Anneberg (named after Mary Louise’s parents) Scholarship Fund in the Carver College of Medicine.
She was a member of the UI Foundation Board of Directors from 1991 to 2006 and is now a lifetime honorary member. She co-chaired the university’s $1 billion Good, Better, Best capital campaign (1999 to 2005) and the Old Capitol Museum campaign.
She received the state of Iowa’s Distinguished Service Award (1983) and is a member of the Iowa Women’s Hall of Fame. In 1997, she donated her papers to the Iowa Women’s Archives located in the UI Libraries. In spring 2013, the UI awarded Petersen an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.
About the art
Hanging in Petersen Hall’s main lobby, “Scholastic Truth” is the building’s artistic centerpiece. The work represents all the diverse influences in college life, presiding above and around passersby as it rises and falls, appropriately showing the flow of the educational process. The dynamic lighting represents the students’ ever-changing internal acknowledgement of these influences. It was inspired by a quote from Martin Luther King Jr.: “Intelligence plus character, that is the goal of true education.”
The piece was made by Eikamp Arts of Dubuque, by Adam Eikamp (a fine art painter and muralist) and Dawn Eikamp (an interior designer). They say the work “is meant to encourage dialogue and provide and opportunity for students to reflect as they transition from student to adulthood. Through this dialogue, even occurring just in passing, the intellect is sparked and the foundation for good character and open-mindedness is laid. Growth, change, and perspective are recognized… both from an intellectual standpoint and in character development.”
More to come
The Madison Street Residence Hall, near the Iowa Memorial Union, is in the early stages of construction. It will house about 1,000 Hawkeyes and is scheduled to open in fall 2017.
