A performance by award-winning singer Judy Collins and the honoring of three distinguished UMass Boston alumni, including Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, capped an almost month-long effort by the university promoting the opening of its new Campus Center.

“Tonight, we celebrate history in the making,” UMass Boston Chancellor Jo Ann Gora told the crowd of over five hundred people at the $150-a-seat dinner. The Office of Institutional Advancement estimates $480,000 was raised at the gala. All the money is earmarked for student scholarships.

Gora called the Campus Center a “landmark addition” to the Boston skyline, which could be seen behind her through the tall, thin windows. “This is a building designed with students and student services in mind,” she said.

“It’s got to be a motivation to students,” UMass President Jack Wilson said of the new Campus Center before the festivities got fully underway.

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino ’88 was one of three on hand to receive the Chancellor’s Medal for Exemplary Leadership, and took the opportunity to praise UMass Boston as the “best experience I’ve had in my life,” and to underscore the need for support of higher education, which has fallen by the wayside in the last several years due to severe budget cuts. “It should not be a stepchild,” he said, encouraging people to provide assistance to the university. “It should be a priority.”

Both Reverend Kathleene Card ’76, a minister at the Virginian Trinity United Methodist Church, and Waldin Group CEO Clayton Turnbull ’82, received Chancellor’s Medals as well.

Many were impressed and enthused about the event.

“To have an event that brings people to the university to celebrate creates a base of friendship and support that will stick with us,” said Vice Chancellor of Administration and Finance Ellen O’Connor.

Trustee Robert Sheridan, president of Savings Bank Life Insurance, called the gala and the Campus Center “spectacular.” “We’re going to be the envy of all the other schools,” he said. SBLI was a primary sponsor for the event.

John Cicciarelli, assistant to the chancellor for economic development, standing behind a giant statue of a lighthouse, said the gala was “like walking into Oz.”

But the gala had something not usually found in Oz: Serious men in black suits with wires coming out of their ears.

The Secret Service, sweeping through the Campus Center, was present on behalf of Andrew Card, chief of staff for the Bush White House and husband of Rev. Card. According to Peter Lawler, the Secret Service’s point man for the event, there were ten to fifteen agents on what he called a “low-key detail.”

Some thirty student volunteers were also on hand to make sure everything went smoothly, from helping to deal with coat check overflow to guiding people from the dining room to the ballroom, according to Caroline Coscia, a gala organizer and the head of the Graduate Student Assembly.

“It’s refreshing to see the community come together and celebrate UMass for its strength,” said Darrell Penta, a student volunteer for the night. “It’s a good feeling.”

“It went beautifully,” said Campus Center Director Anne Devaney, shortly after everyone started to head home. According to Devaney, the event was the biggest one held in the Campus Center so far, as well as the most complicated. “This one broke the ice,” she said.