Vanguard University Celebrates Grand Opening of Freed Center for Leadership and Service
The second building in Vanguard's 30-year campus master plan is the new home to Vanguard Athletics.
COSTA MESA, Calif. – Vanguard University (VU), Orange County’s oldest four-year college, officially opened the doors to its new Freed Center for Leadership and Service (Freed Center) on Oct. 4, celebrating this major campus milestone with a ribbon cutting ceremony and dedication. The new three-story, 61,000-square-foot Freed Center is the second newly constructed building in VU’s 30-year master plan, approved by the City of Costa Mesa in 2019. The Freed Center is the new home of the Kinesiology program, one of VU’s fastest-growing majors, and the new headquarters for VU Athletics, serving more than 450 students and coinciding with the landmark move to the Pacific West Conference this year with provisional membership in the NCAA Division II.
In celebration of this momentous occasion, city officials, university faculty, administrators, students, and alumni came together for a ribbon-cutting ceremony and dedication featuring the Vanguard Worship Collective led by Director Bodie Kuljian, student speakers, and a moment to shoot a “first basket” on the new court.
VU President Michael Beals, Ph.D., described the importance of this building on student life and the advancement of the institution: “The Freed Center for Leadership and Service combines the kinetic with the intellectual as it centralizes Lions Athletics and the Kinesiology program,” he said. “Our student-athletes now have dedicated spaces for exercise, physiotherapy, and competition. Our Kinesiology majors have two leading-edge labs to hone their skills as they prepare to be healers in one of the nation’s fastest-growing professions.”
This dynamic new building is named in honor of the Freed Family. The family’s $10 million gift in March 2022 was instrumental in helping the university meet its funding goal of $16 million for the Freed Center earlier than planned.
“As a Christian family who believes in the mission of Vanguard University, we were proud to be able to gift the funds needed to help build this state-of-the-art facility,” said Evelyn Freed. “The Freed Center will be a refuge for students; a space at the heart of the campus where they can gather, learn and compete. It’s just one of many ways the century-old learning institution is growing to meet changing times, while also still fostering intellectual development, moral maturity and spiritual vitality of its students for the public good.”
STATE-OF-THE-ART AMENITIES
The Freed Center for Leadership and Service will be a bustling source of pride for the entire Vanguard community, acting as a place to gather for sporting events, chapels, worship gatherings and other campus events.
The center’s amenities include a 1,910-seat gymnasium, an adjoining lobby, concessions and ticketing area, men’s and women’s locker rooms, weight rooms, athletic training rooms and athletics offices, workstations, and conference spaces.
The facility celebrates the recent achievements and growth of VU Athletics, which has more than doubled over the last four years, receiving provisional acceptance into the NCAA Division II and expanding to include baseball, men’s and women’s basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, softball, stunt, track and field, men’s and women’s wrestling and men’s and women’s volleyball.
The Kinesiology program, which has experienced 10% growth year-to-year over the past decade, will benefit from new interactive therapy and human performance labs, classrooms, workstations, and study spaces that are also to be used across academic disciplines, adding dynamic and flexible spaces for learning at Vanguard.
A $500,000 grant from The Fletcher Jones Foundation has also provided state-of-the-art equipment that will be made available to the community as a resource through cardiovascular fitness and body composition assessment and employer muscle function testing.
HISTORIC GROWTH CONTINUES
VU is experiencing significant growth while remaining true to its Christ-centered mission for over a century. The university has moved rapidly on implementing its 30-year campus master plan with the opening of the two-story, $24-million Waugh Student Center in February 2020, marked the completion of the first phase of “Imagine: The Campaign for Vanguard University.”
The second component of the campus master plan, the construction of the campus monument sign and perimeter fencing, were instrumental in meeting the needs of the growing university while bolstering its image and security.
The Freed Center signifies the third Imagine Campaign project, completing the vision for a dynamic student life core of the campus, as it crowns the university’s decade-long investment in renovated residence halls, outdoor athletics fields, and the Waugh Student Center.
A fly-through video to depict the VU campus master plan is available by clicking here.