A&T Names Auditorium in Academic Classroom Building for Alumna Rosa M. Beasley

EAST GREENSBORO, N.C. (Nov. 8, 2023) – North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University has named Rosa M. Beasley Auditorium in its Academic Classroom Building in memory of Rosa M. Beasley ‘49, recognizing her contributions to the university and the Washington, D.C., chapter of the N.C. A&T University Alumni Association

Family, friends, faculty and staff along with other university administrators recently gathered for a ceremony to celebrate Beasley’s legacy on the first floor of the building where Beasley Auditorium is located.

“When Ms. Beasley committed, it was for life,” said Lisa Owens-Jackson, Ph.D., interim dean of the Willie A. Deese College of Business and Economics. “She thought beyond her days on this earth and envisioned a future where her life’s work could impact and help transform young people that she would never meet.”

Beasley created an $800,000 endowment at A&T to support both the Deese College and the College of Engineering. That gift has since been matched by the university to form the $1.6 million Rosa M. Beasley Endowed Scholarship.

“North Carolina A&T State University was the love of her life,” said Diane Brice-Williams ‘82, Ph.D., a close family friend of Beasley. “She loved this university and always expressed her desire for A&T to have and to be the best.”

Beasley – affectionately known as “Mama Rosa” to many – played a pivotal role in the lives of A&T alumni in Washington, D.C., where she helped with the purchase of the first chapter house in the 1960s, as well as the purchase of a new property in 2015. Throughout her life, she provided meals, advice, support and more to many A&T alumni in the D.C. area.

“I had the pleasure of knowing Rosa for over 50 years,” said former Washington, D.C., Alumni Chapter President John Slade ’55. “She was surely one of our Aggie greats. I am proud to have known her.”

Beasley passed away in July 2019.