Renovations to the iconic Clayton University Center (UC) at Packer Hall will create a dynamic environment for student life while preserving the building’s historic grandeur. Thank you to all the generous donors helping to make the Clayton UC a vibrant space for everyone in the Lehigh community.
Upon graduating high school in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, Mark Shiner ’77 had a choice of fine schools to attend. He was interested in a career in information technology, and because it would be another decade before IT majors would be available in higher education, Shiner needed to create a program of his own. That’s where Lehigh offered something the other schools didn’t.
“Lehigh had a flexible curriculum, one that I could customize,” says Shiner. He eventually settled on a history major with a minor in business. So where does history fit for a career in IT? “I just liked it,” he says.
In addition to his history classes, his program's flexibility allowed him to take classes in business (where he learned logic through computer code), math, and engineering (which gave him the opportunity to use computers that used ticker tape and computer cards rather than microchips).
About a year after graduating from Lehigh, he was offered a position at the new Bamberger’s store (now Macy’s) that opened in Montgomeryville, Pennsylvania. Management soon took notice of his talent for numbers and technology and sent him to a yearlong training program. This opened the door to IT positions with some of the biggest companies in the world, including IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Oracle, and Merck.
Giving Back
Shiner was always involved as an alum, including serving on the board of the Lehigh University Alumni Association. When he retired, he wanted to give back in a different way that honored all the opportunities that led to his successful career.
“In addition to the scholarships I received, I had a work-study job as a tour guide for 20 hours a week for the four years I was at Lehigh.” As a result, Shiner acquired an encyclopedic knowledge of campus, especially the history of the buildings. “It’s an interesting tie-in,” he notes, “that I wanted to give back to the historic, older buildings, to see them modernized,” he says. Over the next decade, Shiner did exactly that with three iconic buildings on the Lehigh campus.
Restoring History
One building he recalls fondly is what was known as “The UC” in the ’70s. “We used to call the University Center ‘the mailbox building’ because all the mailboxes were there,” Shiner recalls. “Every day at around noon, you’d see everyone. It was the natural stop — the heart of campus.”
That’s why Shiner was motivated to take part in the Clayton University Center at Packer Hall renovation project that began in 2018 when the public phase of GO Beyond: The Campaign for Future Makers was launched. “I was interested in the UC becoming a gathering place once again,” says Shiner. He notes that with the advent of electronic communication, the UC wasn’t the social hub it had been the four years he was at Lehigh. “To bring all of the student groups together — to make a beautiful space where they would gather again, that’s why I donated to the project through the meeting room,” he says.
Shiner is funding one of several multi-purpose meeting rooms in the Clayton UC. He says it will provide “a nice area for students to gather for clubs or meetings, with the most updated technology.”
The Clayton UC project isn’t the first capital project Shiner has supported. Two other historic buildings that he passed hundreds of times during his tour guide days have personal meaning for him. The first was the renovation of Williams Hall for an office on the foreign languages floor; the second was a math study area in Chandler-Ullman Hall, where Shiner served as an urban studies teacher’s assistant for two years.
A Tour Guide Once Again
In addition to his lifelong support of the Lehigh Fund and his support of capital projects, Shiner has also given significantly of his time. After his retirement in 2013, he joined the Senior Alumni Council and volunteered as a greeter in the Alumni Memorial Building, helping out with admissions by manning the front desk and assisting new students and parents visiting Lehigh. Shiner, who clocked thousands of miles in his campus tour days, was more than qualified for this job.
“It was really great because visiting students have lots of other students to talk to, but I would talk mostly to the parents, giving them information about Lehigh and answering all their questions,” Shiner says. “It was really fun to do, and it was also a deja vu, like I was going full circle from where I began — giving tours.”
One of the most-asked questions Shiner got as an alumni volunteer was: “Is Lehigh better today than it was when you were a student in the ’70s?” His answer is a resounding “yes.”
“It’s gotten better in many ways,” he says. “This was quite an easy question to answer.” Some of those reasons Shiner notes include the importance Lehigh puts in the reinvestment in campus with capital projects and the engagement Lehigh has in the surrounding community with the events the university makes available.
Looking back, Shiner is grateful for the flexibility that allowed him to pursue the career of his dreams and the opportunities he received while a student. He is most grateful he was able to contribute in a meaningful way to three historic buildings that meant a lot to him as a student. Shiner hopes that the Clayton UC will be revived as Lehigh’s meeting place. “I can’t wait to see it being used by everyone,” he says.
