An old adage is often invoked to clarify the essence of a university: "It's not the buildings, it's the people." This insight applies equally to the Kay Spiritual Life Center, as Bruce Poynter's fine history of the center shows.

It is, after all, the people and what they have done over 35 years that has continually reaffirmed the remarkable founding vision of the center - from the generosity of Abraham Kay and the Kay family to the chaplains, whose faith and leadership have shaped the lives of thousands of students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends of the university.

Yet, there is also a definite quality to the building itself through which years of dramatic and ordinary events resonate - sublime acts of human compassion, celebration, suffering, beauty, and faith. No grand cathedral this, with gothic spires and flying buttresses. In its own thoroughly modern fashion, the simply adorned, round building captures and conveys the integrity of a university community known for its diversity and openness to all forms of human meaning.

Entering the circle of the building's center, one senses a palpable dignity of purpose and a reservoir of spiritual energy waiting to be tapped. It is a quiet, confident space, offering assurance of its familiarity with the affairs of the human heart and the deeper mysteries of our boisterous lives. It is safe.

On departing, a fleeting glance backwards almost catches the building in the act of renewing itself, drawing its own splendid identity from the vitality of what has just occurred. It rounds out events, closes the circle of our experience, and bespeaks a connectedness of the entire American University community that comes from no other source. The Kay Spiritual Life Center is a treasure whose presence on our campus and in our lives we will still be celebrating 35 years from now and for decades beyond.

Benjamin Ladner, President