Guest Column: Baker Center brings all corners of OU together
Dear John Calhoun Baker University Center,
Saying farewell is never easy, and it never should be. My departure from Ohio University is bittersweet, and I wanted to take a moment to thank you, Baker Center, for your service to the university and the Athens community. It has been my honor to serve you and the Bobcat family.
Firstly, thank you for serving as a welcoming background to countless personal interactions. I have witnessed students falling in love and breaking up in your hallways and lounges. You host meetings where the future of the university is determined. Guest speakers and lecturers share their perspectives with our students and local community. You serve as the location where differences can be aired and common ground achieved.
The individual threads of our community are more easily woven into a beautiful fabric because you exist. The relationships and memories knit within you will last a lifetime.
Secondly, I need to thank the faculty, staff and administrators who work diligently to open your doors and fill you with the vibrant and engaging environment required to make our students successful — specifically the event services team members, consisting of professional and student staff, who are focused and passionate about their work.
They sacrifice time with their loved ones and personal pursuits to ensure that you are always ready to fulfill your role for the campus community. Without their daily efforts, the lights would be dark.
As for me, I will leave the executive director position more seasoned as a professional, more confident in my role as an educator, and firm in my belief that the best days for OU are still to come.
Baker, working together with your campus colleagues, I know that OU will continue to be one of the finest institutions of higher education as you fulfill the Promise of being the best student-centered learning experience in the United States of America.
Sincerely,
Sujit
P.S. Please let Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium and Galbreath Chapel know that they are awesome as well
Sujit Chemburkar is the outgoing executive director of Baker Center and Event Services.
Comments
I don't think that Mr.
I don't think that Mr. Chemburkar has ever understood how important the other venues that he so wonderfully marginalizes in his post script are to the university and to southeast Ohio as a whole.
Without the Auditorium, tens of thousands of students and area residents would never have the chance to be exposed to any of the dozens of national level shows that the Aud has hosted in even just the last few years. No other venue in the region can match the capabilities of the Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium and its staff.
During my time at OU, I worked at both Baker Center, and at the Auditorium, and without a doubt both buildings hosted many events that I was proud to be a part of, learned from, and enjoyed. However, Baker Center is just a building.
It's escalators, meeting rooms, and a food court with terrible hours. If it spontaneously combusted, any of the events held within its halls could be moved to another building on campus, and no one would miss the food court.
Mem Aud is something special for the university, the city and the region, and it cannot be replaced. Did you see Stomp? In the Heights? Mary Chapin Carpenter? Young Frankenstein, or any of the other events at the Auditorium this year? Without that building and its staff, you would have had to drive at least 90 minutes to see any of those shows. The Auditorium also hosts performances from virtually every student performance ensemble in the College of Fine Arts, and serves as a practice space for several large musical ensembles.
Without Baker Center, you would have some inconveniently located meetings.
Without The Templeton-Blackburn Memorial Auditorium, you would have no performing arts in the region except for student productions that can fit within the performance spaces in Kantner and Glidden.