University Community Celebrates the Topping of Arrupe Hall

Members of the Rockhurst community left their mark, so to speak, on the top of Pedro Arrupe, S.J., Hall Tuesday, lending their signatures to a beam placed at the building’s highest point.

The University broke ground on Arrupe Hall in March. The topping ceremony marked the latest milestone in the construction of campus’s newest building, a $25 million structure that will house classrooms, faculty and staff offices and a 500-seat auditorium. It is scheduled to be completed in fall 2015.

William Dunn Sr., ’46, spoke on behalf of the building’s contractor, J.E. Dunn Construction. The time between his own years on campus as an undergraduate and now have been marked by steady progress.

“Much has happened on this campus,” he said. “Buildings have bloomed, the student population has zoomed, and there is much to be thankful for by many people who have contributed to the success of Rockhurst.”

Before Tuesday’s short ceremony, the final beam, in gleaming white, was available for students, faculty, staff and alumni to sign near the construction site. Then, one by one, selected University representatives —faculty, undergraduate and graduate students, staff and Rock E. Hawk — signed the beam before a blessing. The last signature, that of University President the Rev. Thomas B. Curran, was accompanied by the abbreviation AMDG, or ad majorem Dei gloriam, a Latin phrase meaning “for the greater glory of God.” That same inscription, Fr. Curran said, can be found on many of the buildings on Rockhurst’s campus and on many other buildings at Jesuit institutions around the world.

“It is a directive, it is an invitation for all of us in all of our efforts,” he said. “So whether it be the completion of the construction of this building, which started some eight months ago and in some seven months we will start moving into it; a conversation in the Thomas More Dining Room; an ‘aha’ moment in Sedgwick; or a fierce competition in Mason-Halpin Field House, everything must be AMDG.”