New Hall was permanently named Hesse Hall on Jan. 14, which is when the name was placed onto the building. Residential students were notified before classes began of the name change.
“When we built the new residential hall two years ago at the time we did not want to just pick any name, we wanted to see if we could have someone who wanted to name that particular building,” said Mary Anne Nagy, Vice President for Student Life and Leadership Engagement. “We are now fortunate enough to name it Hesse Hall,” she said.
The name “New Hall” was used as a placeholder since at the time the hall was built it was the newest hall.
According to Nagy, the Hesse family has been very involved with the University for a number of years. Mr. Charles Hesse was a member of our board of trustees for a long time and was head of the University buildings and grounds committee. He passed away a number of years ago and his wife continues to be connected to the university. She was elected to the University board of trustees. She has been a member of the student life committee of the board since her coming onto the board and she also is on the buildings and grounds committee.
“She has always been involved in making sure we are providing not only the facilities but the programs and the experience that our students need to have a well rounded graduate and undergraduate degree. It seemed fitting that New Hall would become Hesse Hall. I had the opportunity to speak with Mrs. Hesse before the Christmas holiday as this was all happening. We are very honored and blessed to have the entire family as a part of the community. We are excited about it and it is really nice to have another family name on a building,” said Nagy.
Students who reside in Hesse Hall were informed of the background behind the name Hesse Hall and the Hesse family in an email. “In the email that was sent out they explained that the name Hesse comes from the Hesse family, a family which has a longstanding relationship with the university and has a deep commitment in ensuring student success,” said sophomore nursing student Caroline Shanahan.
Shanahan said that it will take time to get used to calling New Hall the new name Hesse Hall, “I have made that mistake so many times now. I’m very used to calling it new hall that Hesse just seems unnatural,” she said.
There is a process that goes often into the naming of each building on campus. According to 
Nagy, certain names are chosen because people have some connection to the building itself. For example, Pozycki Hall is named after Mr. Pozycki who is on the board, is an alum, and has provided the funding for that particular building.
Very often there is a tie to the philanthropic aspect of the person the building is named after. Magill Commons is named for a former president of the University. The Rebecca Stafford Student Center was also named for a former president. “Stafford was critically important to the development and support of a robust student life experience both from a residential life perspective to student activities,” said Nagy.
When New Hall was opened in 2014 there were no conversations regarding a potential permanent name for the hall. “We were not in conversations with anyone regarding the naming of that building. Sometimes it takes time for those kinds of conversations to develop and again we didn’t want to just come up with any name, many of our buildings are named after trees and we probably could have come up with another name. It was always our hope and intention to secure a permanent name for it. Those things just take time,” said Nagy.
Raymond Gonzalez, associate director of Residential Life, explained how the Monmouth community is happy to have the hall named after the Hesse family. “The Office of Residential Life is very proud and honored to have our newest residential facility named in honor of the Hesse family. They have been incrediblysupportiveof Monmouth University andarecommitted to helping create a positive experience for our students,” he said.
Hesse Field, the soccer field, is named after the same family as Hesse Hall. There are no official plans of a ceremony regarding the naming of the building.
IMAGE TAKEN by Kiera Lanni
