Topping Out Ceremony, Mon., Apr. 4, 1:30 – 2:30 p.m. 

On Mon., Apr. 4, just about 10 months after a fence went up around what was once the campus print shop and construction (or deconstruction) began for the Marshall and Vera Lea Rinker Welcome Center, the Stetson University community is invited to participate in a Topping Out Ceremony on the Stetson Green, from 1:30-2:30 p.m.

The topping out of a building started with ancient Scandinavians who attached sheaves of grain to the pinnacles of their structures. These tentative beginnings evolved into bushes, shrubbery and finally, trees. At the Welcome Center a Live Oak tree will be placed on top of the structure, but shortly after, the “topping” tree will be planted as part of the landscaping surrounding the new structure.

The final beam of Stetson’s Welcome Center was positioned on the ground just outside the east side of the construction fence. For a few weeks Stetson students, faculty, staff, advisory board members, trustees, members of the construction crew and other friends of the university signed the beam. The signatures will forever be a part of the structure that will welcome the global community to Stetson University.

Welcoming remarks will be delivered by Stetson President Wendy B. Libby, Ph.D., as well as other university administrators involved in this project. The ceremony will be attended by special guests, including Swapnali Salunkhe, project architect of rojo Architectural Firm, Ralph Hefner, construction superintendent of the Williams Company Building Division, Inc. and Bob Lipscomb, the CEO of Williams Company. A reception will immediately follow the ceremony.