A Recollection: The Student Engagement Center Past, Present and Future

As most of you know, our campus is currently under construction building a new, state-of-the-art student engagement center. Before this project started, UIW’s beloved center for students and the community to gather was Marian Hall. From the 1960s all the way through 2015, Marian Hall was one of UIW’s favorite dormitories, dining halls, event centers and student union centers.

By the time Marian Hall was completed in 1960, there was a need to have a place on campus where students could congregate and hang out in one place. Over the years, Marian Hall would become a staple on campus for students to meet. Many campus events took place in the famed Marian Ballroom, and one of the central dining locations was the dining hall in Marian Hall. Both locations provided a place to come together between classes. The dormitories also provided residents a form of unity as Marian Hall was one of the earliest dormitories on campus at that time.

By Marian Hall’s final year, the location housed offices, a ballroom, a dining hall and a lounge for students to watch television or set up their computers to work on homework or use social media. Losing the physical building of Marian Hall has been emotionally hard for many in the UIW community from students and alumni to current and past employees who also have strong ties to the location.

The new Student Engagement Center that is being built in its place will carry on the legacy that Marian Hall built over the decades. It boasts a much larger space for students and the community to gather as well as the opening of a restaurant in its basement level. It will continue to help grow the traditions and community that UIW loves and cherishes in each and every unique student that walks the halls and paths of campus.

Whether you went to Incarnate Word College/University of the Incarnate Word and congregated at Marian Hall or currently attend UIW and will hang out with your friends in the new Student Engagement Center, we are one family made up of many unique and beautiful cultures.