[Eliyahu Gasson | editor-in-chief]

The center of Duquesne’s campus was given a new name this afternoon during Festival on the Bluff on Academic Walk.

In a surprise announcement from members of the university administration, the Student Union was renamed after outgoing President Ken Gormley and his wife — The Ken and Laura Gormley Student Union — a plan kept secret from him until the Saturday afternoon reveal.

“I thought maybe they were gonna do something, and maybe I’ll get one of those nice Duquesne chairs,” he said. “People from Swissvale don’t have buildings named after them, usually. I could never have imagined it.”

The announcement was made by former Chair of the Duquesne University Board of Directors Jack McGinley. 

“I think of all the things Ken did as he launched programs to support the notion that we are here for the benefit of our students,” he said. “Many of those activities and resources are contained within the Student Union behind me.”

Since Gormley became president of Duquesne, the university has opened the Nasuti College of Osteopathic Medicine, the School of Engineering and the Center for Emerging and Innovative Media among a number of other things, McGinley said.

The university has also raised $3.8 million toward the Ken and Laura Gormley Endowment for Student Success, which Vice President of Student Life Leanna Fenneberg said will be used to fund a variety of student needs including scholarships, well-being, study abroad and student organizations.

“We’ll have flexible funds each year to be able to allocate based on whatever is the biggest student interest or needs that year,” Fenneberg told The Duke. 

Gormley will officially step down as president on July 1 to take the role of chancellor. Provost David Dausey will be inaugurated as the 14th president of Duquesne the same day.

Eliyahu Gasson can be reached at gassone@duq.edu