Fine Arts

The College of Business and Economics (COBE) awards 20 percent of undergraduate and 12 percent of graduate degrees conferred annually by RU. The College serves about 1,550 undergraduate and 70 graduate students and awards about 375 bachelor’s and 40 MBA degrees each year.

The new building will allow, for the first time, all the business faculty and business-related research facilities to be located in a single building and will serve as a showcase building for the University and its nationally recognized business programs.

RU’s 7-17 Strategic Plan; Goal 4.3 clearly identifies the need and importance of this new facility. One measure for this goal states: “ensuring that all programs, all colleges and new initiatives, have adequate facilities, including but not limited to new classroom buildings, state-or-the-art laboratory facilities, and the construction of a new building for the College of Business and Economics …”

The project is a proposed 107,000 (approximate) square foot 21st Century state of the art facility that coveys the corporate professionalism and quality of the College of Business and Economics and University programs. Desirable design characteristics for the building include ample formal and informal space for students and faculty engagement, environmental sensitivity, and congruence with surrounding structures while taking advantage of the surrounding landscape. It is desirable that the design feature of the building’s main entry open into a multi-level atrium.

The new facility will be outfitted with the latest in educational technologies including “smart” classrooms, state-of-the-art laboratories and research space – all designed to provide the best simulation of real-world business concepts and applications. Student and faculty engagement areas are to include a specialized “Wall Street” trading room, computer labs, student meeting rooms and open areas for students to interact between classes. Classrooms will be structured using a variety of formats including seminar case study rooms, distance learning rooms, collaborative learning pods and auditoriums.

Administrative and faculty spaces will be conveniently located for easy access by students. The building will house all of the administrative and faculty activities for the College as well as the Business Assistance Center, a center for entrepreneurial studies, and a center for personal financial planning. Building size and project budget will be reconciled during the schematic design phase with a potential total project budget up to $44,000,000.