A new plaza is being built on campus to honor the late Joe Serna, Jr., former mayor of Sacramento and government professor at Sacramento State, President Donald R. Gerth announced earlier this month.

An arcade of trees, a tree-shaded amphitheater and a water feature will be elements of the plaza, which will host a variety of student and public gatherings, Robert Arellanes, special assistant to President Gerth, said.

The new plaza will be completed over the summer and a dedication ceremony will take place in September, according to Ann Reed, assistant vice president of Communications and Public Affairs.

Arellanes said the plaza and its location, adjacent to the University Union, was selected in consultation with family and friends of Serna. He discussed the plans on several occasions with Serna’s wife, Isabel Hernandez-Serna, even though she was in Puerto Rico at the time.

“All supported the idea of the plaza. This will be a forum for the exchange of ideas, give-and-take, and the idea of public service. We feel Joe would have liked that since he always argued that government should be part of the solution, not the problem,” Arellanes said.

The plaza is a labor of love for Arellanes because of his close relationship with Serna, which went back many years. Both men served in the Peace Corps from 1967 to 1969 — Serna in Guatemala and Arellanes in Peru. Both men helped elect the first Mexican-American city councilman in Sacramento — Manuel Ferales — in the early 1970s.

The water feature in the plaza will be of special significance, according to Arellanes.

“Joe came from a farm worker’s background in Lodi, and he was known for saying on many occasions that there was no water in the fields until Cesar Chavez came,” Arellanes said.

Serna was referring to times when farm workers did not have water readily available to quench their thirst while laboring in the fields, Arellanes said. The water feature will incorporate Serna’s words.

“It was important to create something living to remember Joe, not just concrete and a plaque — that’s not Joe,” Arellanes said. Arellanes gives Gerth credit for taking on the plaza project.

“We at Sac State care deeply about Joe. We want to make sure he’s not forgotten. It is important that future students remember what Joe stood for,” Reed said.

The campus established its first endowed professorship in Serna’s name and he was honored with the campus’s first Lifetime Achievement Award this year, Reed said. She added that the plaza will probably not be the last project created to remember Serna, who died Nov. 7, 1999. He taught at Sacramento State for 29 years.