University of Delaware
Office of Public Relations
The Messenger
Vol. 5, No. 4/1996
Fellowship, food, films await students at new Trabant University Center

     The $21.3 million University Center, which opened in April,
has been named the E. Arthur Trabant University Center, in honor
of the former UD president.
     Trabant, who served from 1968 until his retirement in 1987
and again from 1988-1990, is now president emeritus. During his
tenure, Trabant led the campus through a period of tremendous
growth, both in the size of the student body and the University's
physical plant. He established such new programs as Winter
Session, the University Honors Program and the University
Parallel Program; founded the College of Marine Studies;
completed the University's first capital campaign; and promoted
the interests of women and minorities through a number of
initiatives.
     Located at the corner of Main Street and South College
Avenue, the new center includes a food court that can accommodate
close to 400 people. Blue and gold neon lighting and banners mark
this area, in contrast to the renovated Daugherty Hall, which
provides a quiet study area complete with computer network
connections. The upper level of the 1868 Daugherty Hall has been
substantially restored, featuring original stained-glass windows,
plaster moldings and light fixtures.
     The Trabant University Center also includes conference and
meeting rooms; an auditorium-style, state-of-the-art movie
theatre; a large, multipurpose room; and a second-floor
restaurant to be run by students in the Hotel, Restaurant and
Institutional Management Program. The building was designed by
Venturi, Scott Brown & Associates.
     Renovations to the Perkins Student Center began during the
summer, with the University Bookstore and the Center for
Counseling and Student Development remaining open. This fall, the
Scrounge and The Review and WVUD offices will open, and work on
the east side of the building and the upper floors will continue
until winter of 1997.
     The Alumni Park, originally established at the corner of
South College and Delaware avenues by the Class of 1983, has been
relocated on the knoll between the E.A. Trabant University Center
and renovated Victorian houses on Delaware Avenue.
     Contributions from members of the Classes of 1983, 1994,
1995 and 1996 will be used for landscaping and benches at the new
location, just west of the original site.