Festive dedication
New Caesar Rodney Complex enhances first-year experience for UD students
5:06 p.m., Oct. 5, 2015--The University of Delaware’s new Caesar Rodney Complex on Academy Street, part of a larger plan to bring first-year students together on the east side of campus, was dedicated during ceremonies Friday, Oct. 2.
The festive event featured University administrators, students, representatives of companies involved in the project and members of spirit teams and the UD Marching Band.
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Nancy M. Targett, acting president of the University, hailed the new Caesar Rodney Complex, which includes housing and a state-of-the-art dining facility, as a milestone in the history of the Newark campus.
UD has been working to build “class cohesion” by providing a neighborhood for first-year students, who previously were scattered across campus.
Near the new Caesar Rodney Complex, the University has opened the Louis Redding and Eliphalet Gilbert residence halls, renovated the Harrington Complex and “spruced up the Perkins Student Center as a hub of social activity,” Targett said.
On top of that, plans call for another new residence hall just south of the new complex on Academy Street.
John Cochran, chairman of the University's Board of Trustees, said the naming of the new complex was an easy choice, both because of Delaware history and UD traditions.
“Caesar Rodney played an important role in the birth of our nation,” Cochran said. “He entered public life in 1755 and served in various capacities for nearly 30 years. But he’s most famous for riding his horse — through a thunderstorm, in the dead of night — to arrive in Philadelphia on July 2, 1776, to cast the deciding vote for independence."
Cochran added that Caesar Rodney’s name “has long been a part of UD,” with students who lived in the old Rodney Complex boasting of “West Side pride.”
“This complex is just the latest example of our belief that a great university needs great facilities,” Cochran said. “It reflects the board’s commitment to keeping our campus beautiful and functional. This is critical to the University’s strategic goals for the future.”
Alan Brangman, vice president for facilities, real estate and auxiliary services, praised the work of University planners and the architects from DIGSAU and construction firm of Ewing Cole that made the building a reality. He also cited the work of ARAMARK in developing a unique dining facility.
“Clearly they have done a great job, as you can witness from the building we are standing in today,” Brangman said.
Dawn Thompson, vice president for student life, said the new complex is designed to promote success by helping students with a sense of comfort and safety as a “place where they feel welcomed.”
“The Caesar Rodney residence and dining hall has been strategically designed to offer every opportunity for our students to engage with one another — and not only begin to, but also deepen their engagement in the social fabric of the community they now call home,” Thompson said.
“UD welcomes the first cohort of Caesar Rodney students and looks forward to the great traditions they will establish as this new community takes hold as a fabulous new feature of our campus. This facility will serve generations of students and we know that it is starting off in great hands with the Class of 2019,” she said.
The ceremony was capped with a ribbon cutting and followed by tours of the complex.
Photos by Kathy F. Atkinson