A special celebration was held Thursday honoring University of Miami president Donna Shalala.
This past fall, Shalala announced that she is stepping down as president at the end of the 2014 - 2015 university year.
Shalala has served 14 years as president of UM.
The university says her presidency has been marked by accelerated progress in many areas, including teaching and learning, discovery of new knowledge, medical care and much more.
As a lasting tribute, the Student Activities Center was renamed the Donna E. Shalala Student Center.
The building, which houses student organizations and the popular campus watering hole The Ratskeller or "The Rat," is one of the transformations she brought to the campus via the two back to back "Momentum" fundraising campaigns, which raised $3 Billion, the largest campaigns of any university in the state.
Shalala says she plans to return to the faculty as a professor of political science and health policy.
