New Livestock Teaching Arena will be dedicated April 24

Virginia Tech's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences will dedicate a new $3 million livestock teaching arena at 9 a.m. Saturday, April 24.

The new facility, on Plantation Road west of U.S. 460, will be named for benefactors Col. and Mrs. Horace E. Alphin and the late Patricia Bonsall Stuart.

"This is a critical facility for our students and for the state's livestock industry," said Mark McCann, head of the college's Department of Animal and Poultry Sciences.

The arena will provide a much-needed facility for teaching activities, major student-organized events, intercollegiate animal competitions, trade shows and other university functions, McCann said. More than 30 of the college's courses and laboratories, involving more than 1,000 students a semester, will utilize the space.

Sharron Quisenberry, dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, said: "Our students and many others throughout the University have laboratory courses where hands-on experience with large animals is an integral part of their learning experience. Current facilities, constructed in the 1950s, were inadequate to serve this purpose and the special needs of Virginia's major livestock and poultry industries, which generate more than $1.7 billion in annual revenue. The new arena will greatly enhance our teaching programs and provide a modern facility for livestock events and programs at Virginia Tech. The new arena will accommodate university, extension, and educational events in addition to livestock shows."

The centerpiece of the facility is a 125-foot by 250-foot (31,250 sq. ft) indoor arena with seating for approximately 800. There also will be animal holding facilities that will be adequate in size to service the arena. Other accommodations include a classroom, lobby, lounge, and office space.

Quisenberry praised the public/private partnership that led to the building's construction. It is jointly funded by private donations and public dollars. More than 420 friends and alumni contributed in excess of $1.57 million, and the state provided matching funds. Of the private gifts, 13 were for $25,000 or more. "This is another example of the great support we get from people and organizations across the state and beyond," she said.

The largest contributors were Col. Alphin and the estate of Patricia B. Stuart.

Alphin is a 1934 alumnus of the college and the Corp of Cadets, who went on to serve more than 20 years, from World War II to 1967, in the U.S. Army. After retiring from the military, he became a hospital administrator in Washington, D.C., and was involved in real estate in Northern Virginia.

Mrs. Stuart and her husband, Herb, were Arabian horse breeders from Afton, Va. When she was 14, Mrs. Stuart began a lifelong career of showing and judging horses. Her husband was a founding director of the Virginia Horse Council, and she served as secretary and president of the council. In 1991, she was named the council's "Horsewoman of the Year." The Stuarts also were early supporters of the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, and she served as a director of the Virginia Horse Center Foundation.

The livestock arena dedication is part of a two-day "21^st Century Celebration" for the Department of Animal and Poultry Science. On Friday, the department will host a dinner for alumni and friends. The dedication will be followed by the 82^nd Little International Livestock Show.

Consistently ranked by the National Science Foundation among the top 10 institutions in agricultural research, Virginia Tech's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences offers students the opportunity to learn from some of the world's leading agricultural scientists. The college's comprehensive curriculum gives students a balanced education that ranges from food and fiber production to economics to human health. The college is a national leader in incorporating technology, biotechnology, computer applications, and other recent scientific advances into its teaching program.

Founded in 1872 as a land-grant college, Virginia Tech has grown to become the largest university in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Today, Virginia Tech's eight colleges are dedicated to putting knowledge to work through teaching, research, and outreach activities and to fulfilling its vision to be among the top 30 research universities in the nation. At its 2,600-acre main campus located in Blacksburg and other campus centers in Northern Virginia, Southwest Virginia, Hampton Roads, Richmond, and Roanoke, Virginia Tech enrolls more than 28,000 full- and part-time undergraduate and graduate students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries in 180 academic degree programs.