NEW COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION BUILDING We have an ambitious goal: to be one of the nation’s best. To achieve that goal, we are striving to deliver business education that is extraordinary, and we are well on our way. At Kent State, we are looking to transform the way we teach and the physical structure in which the business leaders of tomorrow learn. Business is no longer a siloed world. The importance of collaboration is top-of-mind for professionals in all businesses, large or small. Our interdisciplinary approach provides hands-on, integrated instruction to business majors, business minors and students taking business courses across the university system. Today’s students are digital natives and aren’t engaged by a 20th century, lecture-based approach to learning. They require team-based areas to learn and collaborate across disciplines. We know our students do their best work when disciplines unite. This is a hallmark of Kent State.
Rendering of “The Big Main” space in the new COBA building.
A COLLEGE ON THE RISE Our undergraduate program rose 33 places in the 2018 U.S. News & World Report ranking – the largest jump among U.S. business schools – placing us among the top 100 public business colleges in the nation in the last year. Kent State’s College of Business Administration (COBA) has been educating business students for more than 80 years and we are one of Ohio’s largest business colleges, with more than 3,700 business students across the Kent State system and another 4,700 non-business students enrolled in our courses. We have experienced double-digit enrollment gains since 2010 and our faculty are world-class. Our students are increasingly global, representing more than 60 countries around the world.
With COBA alumni exceeding 32,000 – a number of whom are internationally recognized business leaders and educators – the college is poised to capitalize on these successes and obtain unprecedented private support. Never before has there been a better time to leverage alumni enthusiasm in a capital campaign for a new business building.
• Build the college’s international reputation as a global crossroads for business education
“The new building will have the latest technology for teaching modern business practices and skills that will provide more opportunities for students to learn and will also better facilitate faculty and doctoral student research. This will be a game-changer in how we prepare our students for modern business careers.”
• Take pivotal roles in international conglomerates, both U.S. and foreign-based firms
– Deborah Spake, Ph.D., Dean of the College of Business Administration
Our distinguished business graduates: • Lead Fortune 500 companies as CEOs and C-suite executives • Create successful start-up businesses throughout Ohio and across the nation
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT While we move ever upward in the rankings, there’s one glaring “opportunity for improvement.” Our corporate headquarters – the academic building where we teach students, house faculty, invite recruiters, host conferences and visiting executives – is obsolete and inadequate. Businesses are investing heavily in creating collaborative, team-based environments in which their employees can brainstorm and create the next big idea. We want our headquarters to mimic the real business world and prepare our students for life after graduation. The current business administration building dates back to 1971 – more than 20 years before most of our students were born… and a full decade before the IBM PC began revolutionizing business technology. Our classrooms are outmoded and overcrowded and there aren’t enough of them. One-third of our classes are taught in other buildings and our hallways are cramped and narrow, often obstructed by students sitting on floors, while awaiting appointments with faculty and advisors. We have no room to grow, no room for students or faculty
to converse, share ideas or exchange expertise. We have no office space for adjunct or visiting faculty and no private areas in which a student might study, work on a group project or talk with a prospective employer. Yes, we need a new building, but not for the sake of the structure itself. Rather, for the sake of the opportunities and advances it will create. In tandem with flexible, easily reconfigured classrooms and small-group study areas, our new building’s design is anchored by the “campus as classroom” model. Fortunately, we now have a transformative and exciting opportunity. An opportunity to build – literally – on our success, by creating a dynamic, new home for the College of Business Administration.
IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT THE BRICKS AND MORTAR The new business building is part of the university’s Gateway to a Distinctive Kent State, a $1-billion master plan to transform the Kent Campus and improve facilities over 10 years. The proposed business building will be located on Main Street and serve as an anchor in the transformation of Front Campus. This new facility – a signature structure in a landmark location – will make a powerful statement about the stature of the college, the achievements of our alumni and the high regard we have for business leaders.
DESIGNED WITH PURPOSE The proposed $72 million capital project enables the construction of a multi-story, 159,000 square foot building that will provide needed space for the college’s administrative offices, classrooms, outreach and research centers.
Within the new home are a number of highly visible, interconnected spaces to propel students to embrace the concepts of risk and reward and train tomorrow’s leaders in Accounting, Economics, Finance, Management, Information Science, Entrepreneurship and Marketing.
Among the primary outcomes is the opportunity to better practice “The New Pedagogy” – teaching and learning that emphasize collaborative, team-based problem solving – the type of engaged, participatory learning practiced in the world’s best businesses. An academic building designed around collaboration looks very different from one designed around old-style, lecture-based, “sage on a stage” teaching.
By immersing students in a modern, professional and exciting structure, we’ll ensure that our graduates – wherever they are from, wherever they will go – can walk into an interview or a job in any corporation, anywhere in the world, with the confidence that they’ll be comfortable and capable.
The new building’s glass atrium will beckon to students, faculty and visitors alike. More than just an entry portal, the atrium will serve as the heart of the building: a place to congregate, converse, exchange ideas and experiences – informally throughout the day and at conferences, receptions and other special events.
The Global Forum will encourage sharing of ideas and concepts as it hosts the college’s key lectures and guest speakers. This two-story venue will have seating in the round for 400 individuals to accommodate large events and will feature the latest teaching technology. This location will provide a panoramic view of the Kent Campus and will be the preeminent teaching space in the new building.
The Center of Centers will serve as the home of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation, The Global Management Center, The Business Analytics Lab, The Sales Lab and The Behavioral Lab. These active learning spaces will feature state-of the-art teaching technologies and software to assist students in the creation and launch of businesses, mastery of big data analysis and preparation for the college’s award-winning student sales team.
A high-tech trading floor will serve as a training ground for finance students learning to invest and support the newly founded Golden Flash Student Managed Investment Fund group and prepare them for regional and national competitions. Equipped with large, high-resolution data displays, Bloomberg terminals and stock tickers, the trading floor will be more than just an engaging learning lab – it will also be a showplace, an embodiment of the exciting, dynamic nature of the finance profession.
Modern laboratory spaces will equip business students for real-world challenges. Video labs will enable sales students to hone their skills in recorded, critiqued simulations. Videoconferencing studios will be available for entrepreneurship students to make real-time, face-to-face pitches to venture capitalists. Analytics labs will provide business students with the opportunity to analyze and visualize big data for strategic, science-driven solutions to business problems, and a behavioral lab will support doctoral students and faculty as they expand business knowledge related to the neuroscience of consumer behavior.
Attractive, professional conference rooms will accommodate visiting faculty and business leaders, prospective employers and corporate executives in appropriate, professional spaces.
The bottom line? The new building will provide an effective, efficient and exciting crossroads for educating business leaders of tomorrow – and for engaging with the business leaders of today.
Dr. Lockwood Reynolds
World-Class Education and a Global Crossroads The world – and its top businesses – are in need of a workforce that is globally competent, confident in their 21st century business knowledge and able to think strategically across borders. Ask any corporate executive to describe the nature of business today, and the word “global” will be high on the list of adjectives. The international, cross-cultural nature of our student body and our numerous study abroad opportunities are hallmarks of our program’s strengths. More than 250 COBA students study abroad each year.
Learning from the Best Our world-ranked faculty are educating students in innovative and compelling ways that rival any other business school in the country. We are brimming with talented, recognized minds in their respective fields. Dr. Shawn Rohlin was ranked 12th in the world among Urban Economists and Dr. Lockwood Reynolds was ranked 75th in the world among young economists. With this level of performance, we are delivering private school results to a large, public university student population.
“Active learning is quite different from traditional lecture-style learning. It is much more hands-on, with students working in teams as they learn to recognize and solve problems and test alternative solutions very quickly. This requires different classroom design, furniture, technology and tools.” – Deborah Spake, Ph.D., Dean of the College of Business Administration
Rendering of the Collaboration Staircase in the new COBA building.
WHY IS THIS NEW BUILDING SO IMPORTANT? THREE POWERFUL REASONS: 1. Students will thrive in modern, comfortable and collaboration-oriented classrooms, labs and public spaces. We know it; evaluators who rank business schools know it, too, and incorporate a “facilities” score into their ratings. Our ranking is already on the upswing, but it will rise even more with a new and impressive facility, increasing Kent State’s attractiveness to future business students. 2. Faculty will be more effective, productive and supported. Our ability to recruit and retain stellar faculty will increase because this new building will make a clear and compelling statement: “We appreciate your commitment and we’re committed to you – committed to providing the best facilities for your teaching, research and service to the businesses of Ohio.”
3. Alumni will be able to point with pride to Kent State. The College of Business Administration is one of Kent State’s most prestigious colleges, with alumni who are business leaders of national and international stature. We owe it to the university and to our alumni – and to other business leaders we host here for colloquia, job interviews and conferences – to embody excellence and be a point of pride and an emblem of professionalism.
WHY IS PHILANTHROPIC SUPPORT NEEDED? Philanthropic support is more than simply important; it is essential if we are to make this vision a reality. We are engaging in an innovative public-private partnership and philanthropic support will be needed to construct the building. The bottom line is simple: We need supporters who share our understanding of the facility’s importance – and our vision of the business school’s dynamic future – to lean forward and say “yes” to a project that is important and transformative, for our current students and faculty, and also for our alumni… and for the future of business education and business leadership in Ohio and across the globe. We need your support to make our future Forever Brighter.
For more information or to discuss a philanthropic donation, please contact cobaia@kent.edu.
www.kent.edu/cobabuilding