ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. - St. Bonaventure University unveiled plans today to build a $10
million home for its acclaimed School of Business.
Financing plans were not revealed, but university officials said the project would be
paid for through external fundraising. No precise opening date for the building has been
set, although school officials expect the doors to open in 2014.
The School of Business now shares a home in the John J. Murphy Building with the
Russell J. Jandoli School of Journalism and Mass Communication. The School of Business
serves roughly one-third of the university’s undergraduate and graduate population,
said Sr. Margaret Carney, O.S.F., university president.
“As I have talked with alumni and friends of the university about this project, I
have told them that there are no other initiatives that will have a more significant
effect on the university’s success in the next decade more than this project,”
said Robert Daugherty, a 1977 School of Business alum and member of the Board of Trustees;
he’s heading the fundraising for the building project.
“We have a product of unquestionable quality, but we do not have a facility that
is commensurate with our educational reputation and capacity,” Daugherty said.
“I am thrilled to be working on this project.”
St. Bonaventure’s School of Business is accredited by the Association to Advance
Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), a distinction only 15 percent of business schools
have achieved.
Mike Mistriner of Cannon Design unveiled architectural renderings of the proposed
26,000-sq.-ft. building early Friday afternoon in the Murphy Building’s Dresser
Auditorium.
The building will be located between Plassmann Hall and the Reilly Center on the west
side of campus.
The building will feature a financial services lab; a corporate boardroom simulator;
high-tech, state-of-the-art classrooms; breakaway areas and spaces for student
collaboration and team-building; vibrant space for faculty research; and a commitment to
sustainability.
Despite uncertain economic times, Sr. Margaret said that universities must still
embrace progress.
“It’s the visionary institutions – those that have been around for more
than 150 years and plan to be around for more than another 150 years – that make bold
moves, always,” she said.
The School of Business project continues a trend of dramatic infrastructure upgrades at
the 152-year-old university.
Since 2004, recreation, dining, athletic and science centers have been built or
overhauled, and some residence halls have received significant upgrades. This summer,
campus roads will be repaved and a spur will be added to the popular Allegheny River
Valley Recreation Trail that winds through campus and into the neighboring communities of
Olean and Allegany.
Go to www.sbu.edu/bullishonbusiness
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