Building Leaders, Living Traditions: The Memorial Student Center at Texas A&M University

For more than fifty years, the Memorial Student Center - the MSC - has served as the ‘living room’ of the Texas A&M University campus. But aside from its role as a lounge, dining, and recreational facility for students, the MSC has fostered student programs that have played a vital role in Texas A&M’s transformation from an all-male, all-military, rural college to a university internationally recognized for excellence in a variety of fields. Conceived as a memorial to Aggies who lost their lives in the two world wars when it opened its doors in September 1950, the MSC eventually became far more than just a monument to fallen comrades. The MSC and the programs initiated by its first director, J. Wayne Stark, helped the university expand its focus to include students not in the Corps of Cadets - such as returning veterans and, eventually, women and other civilian students. Author Amy Bacon surveys the development of two functions that quickly became vital to the mission of the Memorial Student Center: its role as a leadership laboratory, especially for non-military students; and its centerpiece location as a place of extracurricular, cultural, and intellectual enrichment. This attractively illustrated book draws heavily on recorded oral histories, archives, and extensive interviews with key administrative leaders and students, both former and current. Building Leaders, Living Traditions narrates the story of an institution that has transformed and enriched the lives of tens of thousands of Aggie students and is poised to continue its vital mission for decades to come.