The University of Arizona is inviting the public into its oldest building to show off the results of a multimillion-dollar renovation.
Historic Old Main, the backdrop for countless marriage proposals and first kisses, will be open for tours Wednesday after a ribbon-cutting ceremony that features fanfare fit for a campus icon.
Cheerleaders, the UA marching band and Wilma and Wilbur Wildcat will share the spotlight with President Ann Weaver Hart, who recently relocated her presidential office suite to the 123-year-old building that had fallen into disrepair.
Old Main will be “a centerpiece of the UA campus for generations” thanks to the recent upgrades, Hart said in a news release announcing the event, which runs from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
The head of UA’s fundraising foundation also will be on hand to encourage donations to the $13.5 million project.
So far, giving has been light. Less than $3 million of the total has been raised in the past 18 months or so.
The UA has used savings and tapped an emergency building repair fund to cover the renovation costs until donations come in.
Jim Moore, chief executive of the UA Foundation, hopes that will change now that the project is finished.
“Donors can invest in our past and our future with a gift to Old Main,” Moore said in the news release.
The foundation is selling naming rights to some of the building’s newly renovated public areas, and donors also will be able to buy an original tile from the building’s roof, he said.
Some prominent UA alumni have said publicly they withheld donations to protest Hart’s decision to move her offices to Old Main, an expense they see as unnecessary.
Hart and her supporters say the move makes sense because the new location allows for more interaction between the president and UA students.
