PROGRESS: Buena Vista hails completion of $15M Siebens Forum renovation

Fundraising for the $15.1 million renovation began in February 2017. Construction was completed in August 2018, allowing for the Buena Vista Beavers football team to enjoy its first meal together as pre-season drills commenced.

“Every dollar of the $15.1-million project is impacting students,” Merchant said. “This space would truly not be possible without your generous gifts.”

Generosity and a vision led to the life-altering formation of this space in the first place, some 34 years ago; a facility that, in 1985, was referred to as “an academic wonderland” in a New York Times story.

Affectionately known as the Forum, the 2.5-acre underground structure attracted viewers from across the country who marveled at its modern dining areas, ballroom, meeting rooms for receptions and events, a student center and state-of-the-art computer center.

The site came about thanks to the historic gift from Harold Walter Siebens, whose $18 million challenge gift inspired alumni and friends of BVU to contribute an additional $9 million, setting a course for the liberal arts institution located on the shores of Storm Lake.

While the Forum continued to operate as a handsome, structurally sound and well-maintained facility, today’s students presented different needs, and little had been done to alter the interior shape and offerings of the Forum since its opening.

A space-utilization study coupled with student and staff feedback generated ideas to reutilize existing spaces, leading to a reconfigured student space that’s become more open, inviting and flexible, one showing a vibrant motif and movable components, including dining, to ensure Buena Vista continues to stay abreast of trends important to the study body.

A more up-to-date dining experience has been introduced, including a Cru5h Dining restaurant that offers breakfast all day and is open to the public. “This is also available for you to enjoy,” Merchant reminded guests that evening.

By opening the entrance to the Harold Walter Siebens School of Business, students within may enjoy enhanced visibility of the rest of the site, while also providing views of those passing by. Walkways now feature additional seating areas, a lounge, the Cordell and Sandra Peterson Fireside Lounge and more accessible meeting and study areas, such as the Robert L. Peterson Commodity Training Room.

Lehnus Campus Bookstore has been renovated while space was increased for BVU’s Center for Academic Excellence and other scholastic endeavors. BVU’s Center for Diversity and Inclusion celebrated its grand opening within the Forum in early February.

Not long after fundraising for the renovation began, students in BVU’s Class of 2017 embarked on a pledge drive of their own, seniors who were yet months away from commencement. And while those seniors would not enjoy the fruits of their gifts as full-time BVU students, they quickly moved well beyond an intended goal of $2,000, finishing with a balance of $3,372 to forward to the effort. The drive continued a tradition of senior-led gifts established some 25 years earlier.

“BVU’s motto is ‘Education for Service’ and I can say that we learn to serve others whether individually or in our careers,” said Haley (Stevens) Davis, a member of the Class of 2017 and current assistant director of student activities. “This University has invested a lot in us, and we want to do the same for BVU, which has helped shape us into who we are today.”

Those gifts, and those of hundreds of others, helped reshape BVU’s signature structure, a facility and a people intent on serving students and this community for generations to come.