Union University presented a lead gift from the McAfee family to fund a new academic building to house the McAfee School of Business on March 18 at the annual Faith in the Marketplace luncheon.
The new building, which will neighbor White Hall and Pleasant Plains Extension, will provide new classrooms and faculty offices as well as first-floor student working spaces, a live finance area and a center for free enterprise, innovation and entrepreneurship. The center is a collaborative feature between the business school, the computer science department and the engineering department.
“That’s really the idea behind this innovative entrepreneurial coworking space: bringing together three units—computer science, engineering and business—that can all benefit from each other in the working world,” said Jason Garrett, dean of the McAfee School of Business. “These are the core ideas of free enterprise as well, and that’s really what we’re trying to drive.”
With the new building located on the Great Lawn alongside White Hall, Jennings Hall, Providence Hall and the Logos, the School of Business would move out of the Blasingame Academic Complex, which is shared with the schools of education and social work.
“We don’t have places where business actually happens—where students can actually learn concepts in classrooms and then walk into a laboratory and make those concepts actually happen in real life. Not only in that way will this building be different than the BAC is currently, but I think it will be different than what any other academic institution sees,” Garrett said.
The business school faculty aims to enhance student learning through the new environment by providing new resources unavailable in the previous Blasingame space.
“A new building gives us the opportunity to make sure the community of learning between students and faculty can happen better,” said Santhosh Abraham, associate professor of accounting. “As a business school, we are at the front of how an organization should lead. That starts with the impression we create. Having a building that is state-of-the-art is important because it tells you that we practice what we preach.”
“I hope that the same mission that has taken place in my time here will not only continue in the new building but will also grow,” said Beau Houser, a senior business marketing major. “In my four years here, I’ve greatly benefitted from my time in the McAfee School of Business. Hopefully, that mission can be further implemented in these students who will have the same experience that I had in the BAC in the whole three-story building.”
The project is scheduled to complete construction by Union’s bicentennial celebration in 2023 after full funds are raised through the office of institutional advancement. It will be the first major project completed from the master plan approved by university trustees in 2019.
“The McAfees have been good supporters of Union well before this gift. They continue to be great supporters, and this is a sign that they will be great supporters of Union in the future,” said Garrett. “We’re very grateful to them.”
