Talley Student Union
Title
Description
Talley Student Union is the home of North Carolina State University’s Student Union. Today, dining venues, coffee shops, the university bookstore and multiple student organizations, such as the Student Body Government, the Women’s Center, the GLBT Center, and Multicultural Student Affairs do their work in the student union. Prospective and enrolled students alike walk its halls daily to either understand daily life on campus or live that life. Talley Student Union is at the heart of the university’s campus and its history dates to the 1950s with the inception of the college union idea at NC State.
Talley Student Union is the second iteration of NC State’s College Union, the first being the Erdahl-Cloyd Union. The first version was named after Gerald Erdahl, the first director of the college union, and Dean Edward Cloyd, previous Director of Students. Cloyd hired Erdahl to help create a space for students, staff and faculty to interact with each other outside of the classroom setting. The Erdahl-Cloyd Union was completed in 1954 and after years of housing the college union, it was moved in 1972 to create the west wing of D.H. Hill Library and the new college union, the University Student Center, opened on Cates Avenue.
The Talley Student Union is the namesake of Banks C. Talley Jr., the first Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs. The center was named after Talley in 1998, in response to his many years of service to the university and the state of North Carolina. Talley started working at NC State in 1951, following his college graduation from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he received a BA in History in 1950, followed by an MA and PhD in Education in 1956 and 1966 respectively. Not long into Talley’s tenure at the university, President John F. Kennedy signed the executive order for Affirmative Action, legislation intended to increase opportunities for previously excluded, minority groups. In educational fields, Affirmative Action created access for minority, and other excluded students. Originally, the administrators of the UNC system did not follow the Affirmative Action order and eventually they ended up with a consent decree. The consent decree was filed by Judge F.T. Dupree, a United States District Judge, and it called for the UNC System to create quotas for minority student enrollment at the university and ultimately promote integration of the university; it also required the university to be listed as a Predominantly White Institution (PWI). As Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs, Talley’s role was to foster a diverse environment for students, no matter their background.
While Talley was at the university, students and faculty were not always enthusiastic about his decisions. In May 1983, Chancellor Bruce Poulton told Talley that members of Poulton’s Afro-American Advisory Council viewed the Division of Student Affairs as anti-black. Talley responded to this by sending a memo to all the university Vice Chancellors. Talley mentioned the news he received from Chancellor Poulton and that he thought the Division of Student Affairs had successfully worked with black students to create a more diverse and welcoming environment. Chancellor Poulton and Dean Talley talked about creating a new student orientation just for first year black students on campus because Poulton believed that it would help the students create a better community. Dean Talley believed that an additional new student orientation would cost the university more money and that it was not necessary. Talley often had differing views than Dr. Augustus Witherspoon. Dr. Witherspoon was the second African American to earn a doctorate from NC State and the first to rise to full professorship in 1982. Dr. Witherspoon and Talley butted heads on the creation of the African-American Cultural Center as Talley believed that it was not necessary for the cultural center to be created. In a 1992 edition of the Nubian Message, NC State’s African American-run university newspaper, the newspaper portrayed Talley as an enraged white man not listening to minority students. Banks C. Talley Jr. was a complex, multi-faceted human, complete with his flaws and his strengths.
From 2011 to 2015, Duda Paine Architects worked on completely remodeling and renovating Talley Student Union. The building today is based on an open design that is meant to connect the whole building. It is a modern building and it includes more dining facilities and office spaces for student organizations. The new design of the student union tries to draw students and staff in to the space to facilitate interactions and discussions outside of the classroom. The space attempts to engage students in campus events and conversations. It is thanks to the action of previous students that NC State successfully implemented the construction of the current student union to support student success.
References
Original Sources References
Banks Talley Papers 1947-1983, MC00518, Carton 1. Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, NC. https://www.lib.ncsu.edu/findingaids/mc00518
Consent Decree: North Carolina v. Department of Education, No. 79-217-CIV-5 (E.D.N.C, filed April 24, 1979). F.T. Dupree, US District Court Judge, “Consent Decree, July 17, 1981,” The State of History, accessed March 22, 2019, https://soh.omeka.chass.ncsu.edu/items/show/280.
Peeler, Tim. “In Memoriam: Banks C. Talley Jr.” NC State University News. October 25, 2017. https://news.ncsu.edu/2017/10/in-memoriam-banks-c-talley-jr/.
Ryals, Jimmy. “Living History” NC State University News. August 18, 2011. https://news.ncsu.edu/2011/08/living-history/.
Unknown. “Banks C. Talley Jr.” NC State University Libraries Student Leadership Initiative. https://d.lib.ncsu.edu/student-leaders/people/banks-c-talley-jr/.
Secondary Source References
Butts, Porter. The College Union Idea. Bloomington: Association of College Unions International, 1971.
Kranz, Rachel. Affirmative Action. New York: Facts on File, 2002.
Peeler, Tim. “In Memoriam: Banks C. Talley Jr.” NC State University News. October 25, 2017. Accessed on March 5, 2019. https://news.ncsu.edu/2017/10/in-memoriam-banks-c-talley-jr/.
Reagan, Alice Elizabeth. North Carolina State University, A Narrative History. Raleigh: North Carolina State University Foundation and North Carolina State University Alumni Association, 1987.
Unknown. North Carolina State Government Affirmative Action Plan. Raleigh: Office of State Personnel, Affirmative Action Decision, 1983.