On Thursday, Leslie Neal stopped by the Scott Student Plaza to sign a College of Pharmacy beam for the new Lozier Center for Pharmacy Sciences and Education/UNMC Center for Drug Discovery.
For more photos from the beam signing and placement, click here.
Neal is not a pharmacy graduate, but her father, Lawrence Helser, is a 1951 graduate, and, because he was unable to travel from Rockwall, Texas, she signed for him. Only a few inches away was the signature of Neal’s daughter, Shannon, who will graduate from the college in 2018.
 |
Using red, blue, gold, green, black and orange-colored Sharpies, students, faculty and others signed their name, designated their graduation year and honored others — one even drew a mortar and pestle, a tool whose use in pharmacy has declined, but continues to have a symbolic connection to the profession.
Wen Shi, who graduates this month, wrote his name in blue and then elsewhere added “College of Pharmacy” in Chinese lettering. Pharmacy Dean Courtney Fletcher, Pharm.D., signed his name near the beam’s center.
Using a gold Sharpie, soon-to-be-pharmacy graduate Stephanie Wetovick signed her name minutes before the tower crane operator lifted the 800-pound beam into place in the northeast corner of the building, an area that will house the building’s mechanics.
Completion of the building — which runs the length of a football field – is scheduled for late February 2016. Construction crews will begin to enclose the building with glass in the next month or so, said UNMC’s Mic Tierney, who serves as the building’s project manager. If construction continues on schedule, the crane likely will be taken down mid-June.