President David Angel, members of the Board of Trustees and other Clark community members celebrated Thursday’s opening of the new Alumni and Student Engagement Center on Main Street. An article in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette chronicles the University’s first major construction project across the street from the main campus buildings.

Here, an excerpt:

“ ‘It says to the community we want to be engaged. We don’t just want education to be shut behind cloistered walls,’ said Richard Freeland, vice chairman of the university’s board of trustees. ‘It says we want to be part of Worcester and part of Main South.’

“The building reaches upward, meanwhile, by creating new space for the expanded Clark community: ‘30,000 alumni, 2,000 to 3,000 parents, and hundreds and thousands of supporters of Clark,’ as well as current students, faculty and staff, Mr. Angel said. The building is especially notable, he said, for offering a long desired dedicated space for Clark alums.”