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Completion slowed by rain

There will be some changes around Texas A&M University-Commerce in the upcoming months. One of these is the completion of the new alumni center.

The construction of the new center is “a little behind,” Derryl G. Peace, director of alumni at A&M-Commerce said. “It’s behind a couple of weeks because of the rain a few months ago. It rained right after the foundation was built and had no walls. It was hard for the workers to get to and out of the site.”

Alumni Relations was founded in 1890, one year after the founding of the University. Thus far there has not been an alumni center, only an office.

The Alumni Relations office services all alumni of the University and has remained a link throughout its name changes.

“This has been a long undertaking in the making,” Peace said. “I have been here four years and the talks of this center were going on before that. We’re much further than we’ve ever been-there are only a couple of weeks left before it’s done.”

The center will be open to the public as soon as the Alumni Relations office moves in on Sept. 26, so it can be up and running immediately. Other than an alumni board meeting on Oct. 4, Alumni Relations has nothing planned until homecoming. At Homecoming, they will host a reception and sign-in for all alumni of the University.

Currently, the Alumni Relations office is located in the Memorial Student Center.

However, when the alumni office is moved and the new student center is completed, the Memorial Student Center will be torn down.

The new alumni center has not yet scheduled a grand opening. They must wait until everything is moved in. However, they “will do something before the fall 2008 semester is over,” Peace said.

“The construction of the new center is very exciting,” Gideon Mazambani, graduate assistant who works in the alumni relations office, said. “We really need a new place and more space.”

Mazambani has worked for Alumni Relations for a year.

“I work with the database and keep track of all the alumni,” Mazambani said. “I will continue to have this job when the new center opens.”