Business building renovation creates a new student-friendly atmosphere
Though the business building is nearly 40 years old, the $2.5 million renovation that took place over the summer makes it look vibrant and modern, said Clifford Skousen, senior dean for faculty development and administrative affairs at the Huntsman School of Business.
When Huntsman students left for the summer, the business building interior was dark and lacked student space, Skousen said. But, when students enter this fall, Business Senator Adam Croshaw said “they’re going to be surprised.”
“We wanted to try and change the atmosphere and the image and the feel of the school to a more vibrant, upbeat place that people would feel energized just by coming into the building,” Skousen said.
The change is noticeable upon entering the building, with new eucalyptus wood paneling accented by metal mesh lining the walls. Glass doors and an emphasis on letting light through the windows brighten the ground floor.
The dean’s office has been replaced by an open student lounge filled with chairs, and a conference room that can be reserved by students for group projects. Two LCD monitors will soon be installed that can provide information about the college, scholarships and stock quotes, Skousen said. The dean is now located on the sixth floor, with the rest of the administrative staff on the eighth floor, he said.
“The old dean’s office is now a conference center, that says a lot that the building is more student friendly,” Croshaw said. “It was the dean’s vision to have this be a place that students could network and talk to other students.”
The donor wall is currently under construction to be transformed into a glass-encased honor wall, complete with two LCD monitors, Skousen said.
The first floor has been opened up to be more student friendly, Skousen said. At the bottom of the west stairs sits a new student help desk, which provides IT assistance for hardware or software problems, he said. Next to the help desk is a computer lab filled with new iMacs. This lab is open to all students with an ID card, Croshaw said.
With minimal classrooms and offices, the first floor is designed especially with students in mind. A student lounge in the north end of the building is complete with vending machines, tables and three breakout rooms for study groups.
“Downstairs is a lot nicer with the computers and different things like that,” Croshaw said. “I think (students) are going to be surprised and excited about the change.”
The third floor also underwent substantial changes, noticeable upon exiting the elevators. The previously dark third floor with only one way around the building, is now opened up to be more circular and allows more light from the windows, Skousen said.
The CEO Center was moved from the north end of the building to cover the length of the west side of the building. Two classrooms were lost to make room for the CEO Center, though more seats were added to other classrooms to compensate, Skousen said.
All student support services have been moved to this location, Skousen said, providing both graduate and undergraduate students with all types of advising. The center will likely be renamed in the future, though a specific name has not been decided upon yet, he said.
“This was the dean’s dream to try to create an atmosphere and an image of our business school,” Skousen said. “The previous building didn’t have the feel. It was just sort of a commute kind of situation. It was a high priority to change this.”
Funding for the $2.5 million renovation came from a one million donation from the George S. and Dolores Dore Eccles Foundation, which the university matched. Support from the students was also crucial to the success of this project, Skousen said.
There are still finishing touches being applied to the first three floors as the semester begins, and the project did go over budget due to “some unforeseen problems,” Skousen said, such as adding a sprinkler system to the first three floors and removing asbestos from the 1970 construction.
While plans are still in the works for the construction of a new business building, Skousen said the college felt it was important to improve the current business building. Over the years, Skousen said conference rooms and breakout rooms were removed from the building to provide more space for faculty offices, making the building little more than “a commute building.”
“All students could do was come in, take classes and leave,” Skousen said. “That’s not the culture and the atmosphere that we want to create in the Huntsman School of Business.”
With the improvements, Skousen said he thinks students will feel better about their education and it will further show the progress the Huntsman School of Business is making in becoming a premier business program in the country.
“When you have state of the art facilities and buildings, it raises the image of your programs, of your school,” Skousen said. “There’s a lot of evidence of that from other schools that got new buildings that are state of the art, the alumni giving goes up, the rankings go up, the quality of the programs go up – there’s a perception. If people perceive you as really good, it actually makes you better.”
-seth.h@aggiemail.usu.edu