Groundbreaking ceremonies for the William Henry Belk Pavilion and the Luvene Holmes and Royall H. Spence, Jr. Pavilion in the Academic Village were held at College Coffee Tuesday, April 18. Details...
A gift by The Belk Foundation of Charlotte will name the William Henry Belk Pavilion, which will house Elon’s Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning. The center promotes the development and testing of new methods of teaching by faculty members. The building will have flexible classroom space, allowing faculty to experiment with different setup options depending on the lesson or curriculum they plan to teach. The pavilion will have the latest in technology and video equipment so faculty members can observe and evaluate their performance in the classroom.
William Henry Belk founded the Belk department store organization in 1888. His son, John Belk, retired as chairman and CEO of Belk, Inc., in 2004 after a 59-year career with the company. John Belk held top management positions in the company’s central buying office before being elected chief executive officer in 1953. His leadership enabled Belk to become the nation’s largest privately owned department store company. John Belk and his wife, Claudia, attended Tuesday’s groundbreaking.
Peter Felten, director of the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning, thanked the Belks for their generosity. “We have vast amibitions for this pavilion,” Felten said, describing an environment that will foster innovative classroom teaching methods and interaction between faculty and students.
Trustee Emeritus Royall Spence, Jr. made a naming gift for the Luvene Holmes and Royall H. Spence, Jr. Pavilion, which will house the philosophy and religious studies departments. Spence has served the university in various capacities since graduating from Elon in 1942. He was a successful business executive, serving for many years as president of Canada Dry Bottling in Greensboro, N.C. He served 22 years on Elon’s board of trustees, was vice chair from 1974 to 1989, and served as board chair from 1989 to 1991.
Spence and his wife, the late Luvene Holmes Spence, a 1943 Elon alumna, donated more than 47,000 volumes to the former McEwen Library in honor of his father, Royall Spence, Sr. He also created a substantial endowment for the library and made a naming gift for Colclough residence hall in honor of his mentor and friend, George Colclough. Spence was named Alumnus of the Year in 1977, received an honorary doctorate in commercial science in 1982 and was elected trustee emeritus in 1991.
Spence attended the groundbreaking, along with his daugher, Susan Robinson, son Royall III, and son Hardy and Carolyn Spence and their two children, Hardy and Conaree.
Jeff Pugh, professor of religion, praised Spence for having the vision to provide for future Elon students. “This building will be more than just bricks and mortar for the Elon community,” Pugh said. “This is a place where students will come to be transformed.”
The Belk and Spence pavilions are the fourth and fifth pavilions in the Academic Village, which provides a center for liberal arts programs on campus. The pavilions surround a central lawn and outdoor amphitheatre. The Academic Village includes office areas for liberal arts departments and innovative classroom, lab and seminar spaces, as well as residential communities in which groups of students live with a faculty mentor.
Construction on both pavilions will begin in May, with completion scheduled for May 2007.