Now that he has given up his day job, former University of Minnesota president Ken Keller is finally going to have a building named after him. On July 1, the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Building will become Kenneth H. Keller Hall, it was announced Tuesday.
The two presidents who followed him -- Nils Hasselmo (1988-1997) and Mark Yudof (1997-2002) -- already have buildings bearing their names. But Keller returned to teaching after he left the president's office, and university rules prohibit naming buildings after current employees. Keller retired from his teaching position earlier this year.
DEDICATION IN THE FALL: There will be a formal dedication ceremony of Keller Hall in the fall. The naming may dampen Keller's association with another university facility. In 1988, his remodeling of Eastcliff, the president's house, ended up costing $1.5 million instead of $650,000, igniting a controversy that eventually led to his resignation.
When naming a building after a president, the university tries to pick a place that reflects the person's interest and era. This meets both criteria. It's part of the university's Institute of Technology, where Keller served on the chemical engineering faculty, and the bulk of its construction took place while he was in office from 1984 to 1988.
"It's close to his academic home and also reflects one of President Emeritus Keller's lasting legacies for our university," Clyde Allen, chairman of the Board of Regents, said in a statement.
ON THE EAST BANK: Located on the East Bank campus near the intersection of Washington Av. SE. and Union St., it's one of the university's largest classroom buildings. It houses the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the Department of Computer Science and Engineering and the Nanofabrication Center.
JEFF STRICKLER
