Plans for a new library to be named in honor of alumnus and former faculty member Mark Hatfield were announced in the spring of 1985. Originally estimated to cost $6.8 million, groundbreaking was on April 13, 1985, with Hatfield in attendance. On September 4, 1986, the new library building was dedicated in a ceremony featuring Hatfield, then Senator Bob Packwood, and then Librarian of Congress Daniel J. Boorstin. Then school president Jerry E. Hudson presided over the ceremony that had over 700 people in attendance.