Before a standing-room-only audience of educators and dignitaries, children from the community, and campus students, faculty and staff, Salisbury University celebrated the grand opening of its $65 million Teacher Education and Technology Center (TETC) on Thursday, September 4.

"I can honestly say that the reality of this building has exceeded even my greatest expectations," President Janet Dudley-Eshbach told the audience. Years in planning and two years in construction, the TETC, at 165,000 square feet, is the largest structure in SU history.

Members of the Maryland House of Delegates D. Page Elmore, chair of the Eastern Shore Delegation, and Norman H. Conway, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, joined Dudley-Eshbach and First District Congressman Wayne T. Gilchrest; Maryland Secretary of State John P. McDonough; Dr. Howard Seidel; Marilyn C. Seidel, who, with her late husband, Sam, were founding benefactors of the Samuel W. and Marilyn C. Seidel School of Education and Professional Studies; Salisbury Mayor Barrie Parsons Tilghman; Wicomico County Executive Rick Pollitt; Student Government Association President Lili Afkhami; Provost Tom Jones; Seidel School Dean Dennis Pataniczek and others in cutting the first ribbon that afternoon. Conway called the TETC "a showcase for education in Maryland."

The TETC is home to the Seidel School’s Teacher Education, Education Specialties and Social Work departments; faculty in the Charles R. and Martha N. Fulton School of Liberal Arts’ Art, Music and Communication Arts departments; and a wing devoted to technology which includes a new, cutting-edge Integrated Media Center.

"As president I will say the only thing more exciting than watching this project take shape will be witnessing first-hand the learning that goes on inside and realizing the impact and outcomes graduates will have as they go forth to begin their own careers," said Dudley-Eshbach.

A festive reception and tours followed the ribbon cuttings.