Raising the Roof on the New Alumni Center

The phrase “home, sweet home” will take on a whole new meaning this fall when San Diego State’s Parma Payne Goodall Alumni Center opens its doors for the first time.

The ambitious venture, kick-started by a trio of friends and now being steered to completion by the SDSU Alumni Association, is rapidly taking shape on the southwest edge of campus.

“The exterior walls are basically weather-tight, the glass is in, and the roof is getting buttoned up,” reported construction manager Steve Nelson (’96) of Midwest General, Inc. “Once you get it to that point you can almost race to the finish line.”

Scaffolding will be removed from the site shortly and much of the construction is already shifting toward interior work on the two-story campus home for SDSU’s 200,000-plus alumni.

Three of those alumni—Leon Parma, Bob Payne and Jack Goodall—jointly donated $2.7 million of the $11 million construction bill for the center.

“It's critically important to have an alumni center on campus as a drawing card to get people reenergized about the school,” said Goodall ('60) former president, CEO and retired board chairman of Jack in the Box, Inc. “What we're trying to do is develop something here on campus that will get more people interested in the school and get them back to the school.”

The 30,000-square-foot alumni center will feature a main entrance through a spectacular rotunda, a ballroom for entertaining up to 260 people, a library with Aztec memorabilia and a multipurpose outdoor pavilion area overlooking the athletic fields and Tony Gwynn Stadium.

The dedication of  the new $11 million center is planned for Oct. 17, 2009.

“This will be a day to celebrate a heretofore unknown alumni phenomenon,” said Jim Herrick, executive director the SDSU Alumni Association. “The Parma Payne Goodall Alumni Center will be open for the business of perpetually welcoming our alumni community to San Diego State.”