center of it all

Every IU student knows the Indiana Memorial Union. \nIts status as a favorite destination for food, entertainment and between-class naps has been ingrained into the woodwork of IU since its founding 95 years ago.\nAs the 100-year anniversary of the Union approaches, one thing has remained crystal-clear over the last century -- the Union's focus has always been the students.\nIU alumnus John Whittenberger fostered the idea of an IU union in 1909 to alleviate tensions among the student body. Separate from today's Union, the first student building included a lounge and reading, smoking and billiards rooms -- for men.\nIt wasn't until 1952 that the Union Board began to admit women members. Whittenberger never lived to see the true fruits of his labor -- he died a year later of typhoid fever.\nBut his idea lived on. Construction of today's Union began in 1931, despite the stock market crash two years earlier and the Great Depression that followed. \nLater, a healthy, post-World War II economy instigated a 1950s expansion tripling the Union's size. Memorial fund-raisers helped pay for the Union's construction, a 1980s renovation and many of the buildings prefixed with "Memorial" across campus.\nFormer IU president and chancellor Herman B. Wells championed an educational role for the Union. Current IMU Associate Director Thomas Simmons called Wells a visionary whose mixture of entertainment and education in the Union made him "an icon of higher education."\nDuring Wells' time as president, many students came from farms in surrounding rural areas. He wanted to expose these "farmboys" -- "as (Wells) would probably have said it," Simmons said -- to culture they had never seen. \nWells used the Tudor Room, initially a fine-dining restaurant, as an opportunity for students to experience a big-city-style luncheon before their first business meetings. Wells also brought thousands of pieces of fine art into the IMU, which still adorn its halls and rooms.\n"Someone said, at one time, that the IMU has the largest art collection outside of an art museum in the country," Simmons said. \nThough unsure of the claim's accuracy, Simmons did say the Union's collection is unlike what is found in many other university unions.\n"The focus of education outside the classroom, what Herman Wells visioned upon, still is sort of what drives the Union Board programming," Simmons said. \nOne direct result of the tight student-Union bond was student protestors sparing the IMU of vandalism during heated Vietnam protests on the campus.\nThough the Union's main focus hasn't wavered over the years, the student body's has. \nHallmarks of the past -- formal dances, receptions and similar entertainment -- were ousted in favor of activities like pop concerts and quiz bowls. In the 1970s, the Union Board responded to student demand and landed concerts featuring Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones and Jefferson Airplane. The long-hair trend of the 1960s and 1970s even caused a substantial blow to the IMU barbershop's business.\n"(Nowadays), students are much more diverse in their interests," Simmons said. "(The Union Board) is programming for a smaller group of students, and it's more challenging." \nThe Union Board targets more niche groups of students now, whereas in the past it didn't have to because nearly everyone enjoyed the same activities, Simmons said.\nOne thing on which IU students always agree is the Union's massive size. \nAlmost every student here has heard that the IMU is the largest in the world at approximately 500,000 square feet.\nBut how big is that, anyway? \n"When you tell people '500 (thousand) square feet,' that doesn't mean too much," Simmons said. So he clarified, "about 11-1/2 acres of floor space." \nThat's about nine football fields.\nYet the Union, technically, isn't the largest building on campus. \n"The (main) library actually has a little bit more assignable square feet," said Simmons. \nBut the library's shorter stories inflate the perception of its size, as square feet only measure floor space. A unit used to measure volume like, the cubic foot, more accurately reflects the Union's vastness, Simmons said. Either way, he said, "(The Union) is a large facility."\nBut is it the largest college union in the world? \n"Unions are very big in this country, very small elsewhere," Simmons said. \nSo, the question is really confined to the United States. Still, competition from other universities threatens the IMU's claim to the largest college union.\nThe University of Southern Illinois--Carbondale boasts it has the world's largest college union, but without a hotel. Oklahoma State declares victory with the aid of an attached parking garage added to its size estimate.\nAn underground connection joins Purdue's union and an adjacent building, bringing its total size within a few thousand feet of the IMU, though it's still a second-place finish for the Boilermakers. \nAnd the University of Michigan's three separate unions, when combined, equate to more square feet than the IMU, according to Simmons.\nIn response, Simmons said, IU keeps it simple. \nThe IMU is the largest college union in the world "under one roof."\nApart from its on-campus legacy, IU and the Union have attracted many famous names to Bloomington. \nAmong those to visit the IMU are former Presidents Harry S. Truman and Richard Nixon, actors Harrison Ford and Richard Gere, comedians Bill Cosby and Bob Hope and even the Dalai Lama.\nOthers have come, too. In the 1960s, relatives of former President John F. Kennedy stayed in the IMU hotel to attend a family member's wedding here in Bloomington, Simmons said.\nThroughout the Union's history, times have changed, students have changed and topics of interests have changed -- though some haven't. The Indiana Daily Student published an editorial complaining about overcrowding in the Union's Commons in 1952. Almost half a century later, on Sept. 16, 1998, an IDS columnist was still complaining about the same topic.\nAnd though the student population will always change, the focus of the Union never will. \nAfter all, the word union itself denotes a bond, the strong tie between the students and their college union that Whittenberger and Wells envisioned.\nSimmons agrees. \n"(That vision has) manifested itself in many different ways around the campus (and) continues to manifest itself."\n-- Contact staff writer Patrick Caldwell at pcaldwel@indiana.edu.