Construction begins for Schar Center
The Elon Phoenix basketball and volleyball teams have called Alumni Gym home for decades, but plans for a new convocation center could put them in a state-of-the-art on-campus arena as early as fall 2018. The university’s athletic department has announced preliminary plans for the arena, outlining the $20 million fundraising goal that would be needed to finalize the project. The new facility would be named the Schar Center, after Dwight and Martha Schar P’16 and P’19, who gave $12 million to the university in 2012. Part of their donation funded the construction of a new building for the School of Communications, Schar Hall. “The university has had a long-standing need for a large gathering space that would support major events," said Gerald Whittington, Senior Vice President for Business, Finance and Technology. Whittington added that the new building would put Elon on par with other athletic facilities in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA).
