Frist, McGraw families on hand for dedication of campus center

Even a world-renowned bioethicist who serves as an adviser to the president of the United States and is himself president of one of the nation's top universities knows the value of a good slice of pizza.

And at the dedication of the Frist Campus Center on Friday, President Shapiro acknowledged the tasty pizza as one of the many perks of the newly opened building.

He said one of the main goals of creating Frist was to offer students new "programming" — or social alternatives. But as Janina Montero, former dean of student life, had said to him when the center was in the planning stages, "with students, food is programming."

Before an audience filled with alumni, Shapiro said the event was not only the dedication of Frist, but a "celebration of an expanding Princeton experience" as well.

Shapiro welcomed the members of the Frist family as well as those of the McGraw family — which helped fund the construction of the new McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning in Frist — who attended the event.

He said the opening of the new campus center was made possible by the collaboration of numerous members of the campus community, many of whom he recognized during his speech.

These contributors included Montero, Vice President and Secretary Thomas Wright '62, Vice President for Campus Life Janet Dickerson and Frist director Paul Breitman. In addition, Shapiro thanked the former heads of student government who had been involved in the planning and construction of the new facility.

Robert Venturi '47, the architect who designed Frist, recognized the importance of the building's central location.

He explained he wanted Frist to be at once "a destination and a point of passage," with a complexity that captures both the "modern and historical." He said he had been aiming for a "grunge aesthetic" that would make students feel at home, as if they were in "a teenage bedroom."

Venturi also recognized the importance of a good slice of pizza and said the food plays as big a role in the appeal of Frist as the architecture.

U.S. Sen. William Frist '74 (R-Tenn.) said the architecture of the building captures the hopes and "commitment to others" of his father. "For 100 years, [the campus center] has been the missing ingredient," he said of the University.

Harold McGraw '40 spoke about the teaching and learning center that bears his family's name. He said the center had been established with the goal of building community by "bringing together the minds" of students, faculty and staff. It will allow people to exchange ideas across departments and across disciplines, he said.