NIU administrators and several university donors gathered Saturday for the groundbreaking ceremony of the new Barsema Alumni and Visitors Center – which is expected to take a year to complete.

The center will serve as a launching platform for future students and future alumni, said Dennis Barsema, co-chair of the NIU Foundation fundraising committee.

The new center will sit where the old alumni center was at the corner of Annie Glidden Road and Stadium Drive.

“Now I understand why Northern is making news all across the country,” Barsema said, “and now I understand why I need to go back and contribute.”

Barsema, who donated $20 million to NIU in 2000 to build a new business school, donated $2.5 million toward the new alumni center.

The foundation has received $5.4 million in donations for the project with a goal of at least $6.2 million, said Mallory M. Simpson, president of the NIU Foundation.

The 15 individuals who donated $100,000 or more were honored at the groundbreaking ceremony.

Each of these individuals will be recognized in the “Circle of the Seal” engraved marble floor tiles that will surround an 8-foot-wide university seal in the center of the Great Hall of the building.

There currently are 825 donors contributing to the center.

The center, standing two and a half stories with 37,000 square feet of floor space, will include a faculty library, state of the art meeting and conference facilities and office space for the NIU Alumni Association, the NIU Student Alumni Association and representatives from the admissions and orientation offices.

The centerpiece of the building will be the Great Hall, featuring plaques, displays and exhibits highlighting the history of NIU and the accomplishments of the university’s alumni.