The Schroeder Family School of Business Administration
26 June 2006
By John Martin
Taken from courierpress.com
The
exterior of the Union Building at the University of Evansville
will be changed to house UE’s business school. The existing
building will be renovated and expanded beginning in July and
completed in the fall of 2007.
The University of Evansville's newest academic
building will be named for a family whose name is virtually
synonymous with UE and the city's business community.
Ground will be broken next month on the Schroeder
Family School of Business Administration Building, which will
be a renovated and expanded version of what is now known as
McCurdy Alumni Memorial Union.
The first phase will involve a 35,000-square-foot
addition, which is expected to be ready for use in fall 2007.
It will include a 129-seat, two-tiered lecture hall, five 48-student
classrooms, an executive board room and smaller classrooms and
meeting spaces.
Phase II will begin once UE completes its new
University Center, expected to be constructed in 2008. University
offices now in the Union will be relocated, and the vacated
space will be retrofitted for School of Business use.
UE's business school has been on the second
floor of Hyde Hall since the late 1960s, and it has had no significant
renovations or expansions in the years since. UE President Stephen
Jennings said the Schroeder family is donating generously to
the building project, and its name "will forever honor
these individuals who have made such a difference to our community
and the University of Evansville."
The renovations will cost $11 million, according
to UE officials, who said the Schroeder family wishes to keep
the amount of its contribution confidential.
John C. Schroeder is the current president
of the UE Board of Trustees and the president of Crescent Plastics
and Wabash Plastics, while his father, John H. Schroeder, is
a former UE board president and the founder of Crescent Plastics,
Wabash Plastics, Cresline Plastic Pipe Co. and Cresline-West.
Richard Schroeder, the brother of John C. Schroeder
and an executive in the family
businesses, and Ruth (Schroeder) Bromm, the
sister of John H. Schroeder, also are supporters of UE, university
officials said.
The building's architects are Hafer Associates
of Evansville and Mackey Mitchell Associates of St. Louis. Hafer
Associates also was hired by the University of Southern Indiana
to design its school of business building, which will be built
in the next few years.
The design, according to UE, has certification
from the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green
Building Rating System, which is a voluntary national standard
for maintaining an area's natural qualities amid new construction.
UE's business department has been out of room for many years,
and the new building "will ratchet up the facilities to
match the quality of education students are getting," said
Robert Clark, dean of the School of Business Administration.
The school has about 300 students, all of whom have to complete
an internship before graduation. UE's business school was accredited
last year by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of
Business, and Clark said it is to provide globally focused education.
"We said accreditation was a milestone,
but it wasn't the end," Clark said.