Daily Nebraskan
Friday, October 8, 1982
Page 8
East Union is culmination of 30 years of effort
By Carol Harrah
Thirty years is a long wait
But in 1977, the Nebraska East Union
on UNL's East Campus finally was com
pleted after students and teachers had
worked since 1947 to get a union on
the campus.
Daryl Swanson, director of Nebraska
Union, worked on the planning commit
tee that directed plans for the building.
Editor's Note: Today the Daily Nebraskan
is featuring stories about the Nebraska
Unions. The union system includes the
City Union, East Campus Union and the
Culture Center.
Construction began in June of 1975.
He said East Campus had a need for the
union, but it took a while to get the
funding ready and the plans started.
"East Campus was very vocal about
their needs for a better facility," he said.
"In the '50s, they started planning for
one, but it never came about. They also
pushed for one in the '60s."
Students congregated in the basement
of the Activities Building before the East
Campus Union was built. If dances were
held, the gymnasium was used as an audi
torium. Swanson said the East Union cost
$4.5 million to build. This was $1.5
million over the originally proposed $3
million in total costs, he said.
In 1969, the NU Board of Regents
voted to set aside $2.50 per student out
of student fees to help pay for the costs
of building a new union on East Campus,
Swanson said.
Because of inflation, he said, the board
needed to exceed the original budget for
the union's construction and students
still are paying for it.
Students pay
"Now students have $3.50 of their
student fees going into the fund," Swan
son said. "We had to give ourselves a
loan to build the union."
Swanson said the original $3 million
had been set up through a series of revenue
bonds established during the 1960s. Since
enrollment was increasing, there was a
surplus of money coming in and the ex
tra money "created a surplus to build
it."
Swanson said there was a three-and-half
year planning process for the building. The
planning was done by the Union Board
Planning Committee.
The construction firm was selected
by the committee. The firm designed
the union, and also worked with the East
Campus community to find out what
type of student union it wanted.
One important decision was what the
content of the food service would be.
The human nutrition and food service
management department within the Home
Economics College had a cafeteria in the
basement of what is now Ruth Leverton
Hall.
The Union Board Planning Committee
discussed having just one cafeteria on
campus to avoid competition within the
school.
Hazel Anthony, dean of the College of
Home Economics, worked with the com
mittee on solving the problem.
"My greatest involvement was working
with the Union Board on the food ser
vice," Anthony said. "At first we didn't
want to give it up. Our cafeteria had a
lot of tradition. It took us two years to
decide what we wanted before we signed
an agreement," she said.
Classroom problem
Anthony said the most difficult task
was getting a classroom set up within the
building and having students work with
the regular staff within the food service
in the East Union.
"These areas were paid for by the Of
fice of Academic Affairs," Anthony
said, "not student fees. The union is
a meeting place for social and extra
curricular activities and that's what the
student fees paid for."
Swanson said an Omaha firm called
Backlund Architects, which is no longer
in business, designed the East Union.
He said the site of the union took some
time to choose because there was an
argument on where to place it.
"There were six or seven original sites
proposed for this," he said. "People had
wanted it to be placed east of the C.Y.
Thompson Library because there was a
feeling at that time that the campus was
moving eastward.
"We wanted to keep it in a central
location and near Burr-Fedde halls be
cause the Union Food Service planned
to (and does) feed the students in those
halls. Undergrads are usually the users
of the union and the graduate students
are on the east side of the campus,"
Swanson said.
Continued on Page 9
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Expansion high
By Ward Triplett
1938 is an important year to the UNL student. In May
of that year, the long-awaited Nebraska Union was finally
opened on 14th and R streets.
Now, 44 years later, the union may be taken for
granted for many, but its importance to the social life
at UNL has not dimished.
"I don't think anyone really walks into the union and
considers the services we offer them," said the union's
eighth director, Daryl Swanson. He has been director
since 1974.
In 1935, students who didn't have the food service,
study lounges and other services a union could offer
began a donation drive to build the structure. Davis and
Wilson architects of Lincoln were contracted to draw the
plans for the building, which originally was 175 feet
long and 124 feed wide.
By 1937, construction had begun on the site of the
former Ellen Smith Hall. Opening ceremonies were held
in May of the following year. The building, financed
by a government grant and a bank loan, cost $460,000.
Bonds payable from student fees were issued in the
amount of $200,000, and by 1952, the debt was paid.
"There had been a trend toward college unions at
the time," Swanson said. "They had been building them
at some of the Eastern schools. We by no means have one
of the oldest unions."
In its early days, in addition to student fees, the
union profited mainly from food service, particularly
"the Corn Crib" snack bar located in the current South
Crib. The union was regarded as the headquarters of the
Alumni Association, which joined the Daily Nebraskan
in helping raise donations for the building. Nebraska
students paid $3 for a union card, which enabled them to
Staff Photo by Dava Bentz
light
s Nebraska Union's 44 years
take advantage of the services that student fees allow
them today.
Union board members
The Nebraska Union Board was born a year before
the building actually opened. Among its original mem
bership of seven students, six faculty members and three
alumni were NU Regent Robert Simmons of Scottsbluff
and Mabel Lee, director of the university's department
of physical education for women from 1924 to 1952.
These 16 people originally were known as the governing
board of manager, which controlled the director's posi
tion. The board hired Ken Van Sant as its first director
in 1938.
"The Union Board operated with a great deal of
autonomy then," Swanson said. "They had the power
to hire and fire the director. But bac': then, it was an
adult-dominated board with nine non-students."
The board has been restructured twice since then.
In the 1960s, the union director's position came under
the control of the newly developed division of student
affairs. The Union Board then became a policy-setting
organization, which was reduced to an advisory board
in 1970 because of NU Board of Regents' position was
the only policy-making board on the campus.
"Basically, we could call it anything we wanted to,"
Swanson said. "But the board would be making policies
that could be superseded by the regents. Now, the board
acts as an advisory committee to me, and it's my deci
sion to accept their suggestions or not."
Rapid growth
In 1955, as the university experienced a rapid growth
in enrollment, the regents approved a bond issue for an
addition to the union, as well as for the University Health
Center building and high-rise residence halls, In 1959,
a T-shaped extension to the union was opened. It cost
$1.25 million. The one-floor addition included a base
ment that housed a bowling alley and billiards room,
and allowed for a new snack bar and lounge on the upper
level.
That new look lasted seven years before the student
population outgrew the building again. In 1964, the
regents consolidated the union, health center and resi
dence hall bonds into one. It allowed the union to pay
off its previous debt and expand the existing building.
The expansion extended the building's north and south
corners 30 feet and added the second floor. The univer
sity accented the project with the development of the
union plaza, including Broyhill Fountain. This brought
the union to its current appearance.
Five-year plan
In 1978, Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Richard
Armstrong commissioned the union to develop a five
year plan for the building's renovation. Swanson said
the plan was developed on the assumption gained from
statistics that enrollment would decrease instead of in
crease, and that the University would no longer be able
to pay for seme of the union's costs, such as utilities.
The major thrust of the five-year plan called for the
union to take control of the union bookstores. The plan
would have meant better management for the bookstore,
and additional income for the union, Swanson said.
However, the Office of Business and Finance still con
trols the two stores in the union on city campus, as well
as the East Union bookstore. The only concession the
university has made on the matter is to pay the union an
annual rental fee.
The five-year plan would have rearranged virtually the
entire basement of the building, but because the union
is unable to move the bookstores, much of the five
year plan's goals have yet to be accomplished, Swanson
said.
