Wayne State University (WSU) officials, federal, state and local dignitaries will be on hand to officially launch the Welcome Center and bookstore projects that will ultimately provide a "gateway" to the campus.

As officials push their new shovels into the soil and flip the contents aside, the official groundbreaking ceremony will symbolically mark the occasion on Thursday, August 23, at 1:30 p.m.

Located at Warren, between Woodward and Cass, the Welcome Center and university bookstore will greet visitors to the campus and provide significant amenities for WSU current and prospective students.

"The concept behind our Welcome Center and bookstore complex is to provide a gateway between the university and community while enhancing services to students, faculty and staff," commented Wayne State President Irvin D. Reid.

"As you travel down Woodward Avenue, these facilities will invite you to venture onto our campus and experience the excitement of Wayne State University and the surrounding Detroit Cultural Center area," Reid added.

Characterized as a non-traditional design and concept, the Welcome Center complex will include features that are especially suitable to visitors and students. Among the features is a Welcome Center Plaza centrally located between the parking garage, bookstore and Welcome Center building. This plaza will be landscaped with trees and other greenery as well as park benches. Visitors to the campus and students will have an outside area to enjoy leisure or academic activities.

The Welcome Center building, consisting of 70,000 square feet on four levels, will accommodate administrative and student services offices and a 108-seatauditorium. Interactive computers will also be available as an additional amenity.

Designed around the needs of WSU's students, the Welcome Center will offer a central location for students and prospective students to access necessary information about the admissions and registration process, financial aid, and other areas of interest.

Charles L. Brown, vice president, student development and campus life, views the Welcome Center concept as "one stop shopping" for Wayne State's active and diverse student body. "Our new Welcome Center will literally provide a single location where our students can park nearby, walk a short distance, and meet staff from all areas of our student services operation from applications to admissions to the registrar," Brown said. "This new gateway to our university is a novel way of moving us forward into the 21st century," he added.

Completion of the $18.5 million Welcome Center building is expected in August2002.

Another ambitious project scheduled for completion in June 2002 is the university bookstore. Operated by Barnes and Noble, this $6 million,

30,000 square foot facility, will offer a coffee shop and lounge area within two-floor design. The floor plan and amenities will be quite similar to the bookstores found in upscale suburban communities. Another unique feature of the facility is that it serves as both a university and community bookstore.

"This project is another unique element of the Welcome Center concept. Our new bookstore will be geared not only to Wayne State's students, faculty and staff, but also to our neighboring community. In a way you can refer to this project as a "neighborhood bookstore," said John L. Davis, senior vice president, finance and administration.

Davis also pointed out another important feature of the Welcome Center complex- parking. "Just as important as other features of this project, we just completed a new parking structure providing some limited parking for guests and visitors to the Welcome Center and bookstore. This means our neighboring community will also have an opportunity to visit our services and park their vehicles nearby," Davis remarked.

The new parking garage, located adjacent to the university bookstore and Welcome Center facility, provides an additional 705 parking spaces and are tail area totaling 3500 square feet. Parking will be available to students, faculty, staff and visitors to the Welcome Center. Some spaces will be reserved for the Detroit Public Schools.

Wayne State University is a premier institution of higher education offering more than 350 academic programs through 14 schools and colleges to more than 31,000 students in metropolitan Detroit.