Building A Legacy at the Georgia Southern College of Business
Thursday, March 31st, 2016
The College of Business at Georgia Southern University is excited to announce Building A Legacy, an initiative to renovate and expand its 89,000-square-foot building.
The current building, first occupied by the College of Business in 1995, has not undergone significant renovations since its construction more than 20 years ago with the exception of minor touch ups including new paint, carpet and furniture.
At the time of its construction, the current building cost approximately $16 million and enrollment in the College of Business was around 2,000 students. Currently, enrollment is 3,600 students, and business education has become increasingly competitive. Many other business schools at comprehensive universities across the nation, like Georgia Southern, have announced renovations and expansions or are building new buildings. The average size of these new buildings is 160,000 square feet, and the average cost is $66 million. To remain competitive, the College of Business at Georgia Southern University needs to invest approximately $10 million in its facility.
In its golden anniversary, the College of Business seeks to address the need for cutting-edge space with a three-phase plan. The building, which was built before the use of the Internet in classroom instruction, needs to be retrofitted to support the full functionality required for leading-edge instruction. Classroom layout and design needs to be updated to provide greater instructional flexibility. In addition to renovations within the building, the College of Business will also expand the current footprint by adding an atrium and a financial learning lab to increase visual appeal and flexibility. The atrium will offer students a space and an atmosphere that encourages collaboration and networking. The financial learning lab will provide a customized facility for studying financial markets, monetary policy, financial securities, investment vehicles and other related topics. The lab will feature the newest technology and provide a venue for guest lecturers, student competitions, board meetings and recruiting events.
The renovation and expansion of the building will enable the College to move forward competitively in attracting students, faculty, businesses and donors. For more information, please contact Pam Jones Stovall at 912-478-5083 or email [email protected].