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Giant in Media Honored at Saint Rose

The College of Saint Rose honors the Hearst Foundation for its donations to the school

By SCOTT LAWSON and KAYLA MATTEO

Students and staff of The College of Saint Rose gathered in front of the Center for Communications and Interactive Media to commemorate the renaming of the building in honor of William Randolph Hearst.

The 20,400-square-foot building at 996 Madison Ave. contains a high definition television studio and control room, an Internet radio station, multimedia labs, two recording studios, and a live performance venue. The building houses and is mainly used by Communications and Music Industry students, which according to President R. Mark Sullivan are among the college’s fastest growing programs.

The Hearst Foundation has seen potential in Saint Rose and has donated nearly $1 million dollars in both grants and scholarships over the last 45 years.

“George R. Hearst III, or as he is known in the Capital Region as, ‘our George,’ played an instrumental role in the vision and design of the building you see before you,” said Sullivan at the start of the ceremony. “George reminded us that the status quo will only achieve the same results, but investment now in interactive technology will put us ahead of others and achieve ‘wow’ results. And it has.”

The William Randolph Hearst Center for Communications and Interactive Media will help the college keep pace with the rapidly changing communication and music industries, maintain academic excellence, and increase program enrollment, Sullivan said.

“The pace of the landscape in communications changes so fast that I predict that this isn’t really for us,” said Daniel P. Nolan, chairman of the board trustees. “This is really for future generations.”

After Nolan spoke, George Hearst III took to the podium, and talked about the future he sees for the building.

“What our expectations are for the center are only limited by the imaginations of the young minds and the faculty directing the center,” said George Hearst III, publisher of the Times Union and great grandson of William Randolph Hearst.

The donations made by the Hearst Foundation not only effect current and future students, but they are also turning the heads of alumni who have great expectations for the future of the college.

“We never would have imagined anything like this when I was here,” said alumni Michael Fondacaro, a Spanish and Public Communications major of the class of 1989. “Quality begets quality,” he said, “This incredible edifice…epitomizes that quality.”

By attaching the Hearst name to the college, Sullivan said that it would bring the college to the national level and help introduce the city of Albany to the world.

“If there is a name that is synonymous with communications and journalism, with the business of information distribution, that name is William Randolph Hearst,” Sullivan said.

 

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