The Dalton L. McMichael Sr. Science Center is located on the corner of East Haggard Avenue and North O’Kelly Avenue on Elon University’s Campus in Elon, North Carolina. The 81,000 square-foot building cost a total of $17.2 mullion to complete and is named in honor of Dalton L. McMichael Sr., who made a $3 million gift towards the project. Dalton McMichael, who lives in Madison, NC, was a textile industry leader and a longtime supporter of Elon University. His daughter Gail Drew also attended Elon University. The addition of McMichael more than doubled the classroom and laboratory space devoted to the sciences. The building housed 17 teaching laboratories, 14 student research laboratories, 42 faculty and staff offices, a new computer lab, and 11 reading and conference rooms. The center also got a technology improvement, with the addition of a nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer, a scanning electron microscope, an ultracentrifuge, an atomic absorption spectrometer, an atomic force microscope, digital field fluorimeter, and a multi-response spectrometer. Improving the science center was the first goal of the “Elon Vision”, a strategic plan constructed by the trustees and administration to improve Elon University by the year 2000. The building features a large white marble sculpture that was done by artist Horace Farlowe in front of the entrance. Following the opening of the McMichael Science Center, enrollment in undergraduate science classes grew rapidly.