Goodes Hall Expansion Enters The Homestretch
Eight years ago, Mel Goodes (BCom’57), former chairman & CEO of Warner-Lambert, officially opened a new 113,000-square-foot home for Queen’s School of Business named in honour of his parents. Built on the site of the carefully restored Victoria Elementary School (circa 1892), the new facility elegantly blended rich history with modern innovation,mirroring the personality of its occupant.
Fast forward to 2010, and much has changed at Queen’s School of Business since we opened the doors of Goodes Hall. Our first-year Commerce class has increased to 320 students and we’ve launched several new programs, including an Accelerated MBA for Business Graduates, a dual Executive MBA program with Cornell University, and two new Master of Management programs specializing in Global Management and Finance.
As we enter this new decade, Queen’s Board of Trustees has approved our plans to enhance QSB’s home to achieve even greater collegiality, collaboration and communication through a carefully designed building expansion. With this new space, we will realize our ambitious plan to grow the School’s students, faculty, programs and research centres, while honouring our tradition of intimate learning through classes that remain capped at 80 students. The 75,000-square-foot expansion will feature three new high-tech classrooms, along with breakout rooms geared at fostering group discussion and promoting leadership, teamwork, critical thinking and creativity. There will also be a student common area and multi-purpose room for conferences, guest speakers and recruiting events, as well as increased ComSoc and study space for students. (Turn to page 3 to see the architect’s design.)
The Goodes Hall Expansion is a core component of our five-year Strategic Framework that also includes:
- Growing our Commerce student body by 50% from 300 first-year students to 450 of the best candidates from an application pool of 4,500 and increasing enrolment across our portfolio of MBA programs, all without compromising our first-in-class student experience that nine out of 10 QSB alumni agree is key to our future.
- Strengthening our faculty team to 75 of the world’s best business professors in fields of global significance.
- Enriching innovative programming to ensure QSB builds on its unparalleled history of innovation in programs, research and business education.
I’m pleased to report that the financing needed to expand Goodes Hall is near completion – thanks in no small part to $1.2 million from QSB Commerce students, and gifts from other generous donors. Now with $18 million of the $22 million that QSB needs to raise for this $40 million expansion, we are just $4 million away from advancing our mission to be one of the most innovative and influential business schools in Canada and the world.
As we enter the homestretch, we are calling on our extended, global family of alumni and friends to help us cross the finish line and complete the financing of this project. We want to ensure that we have full private support in place to ensure the project’s success. Our goal is to have the building fully funded by the time the doors open in late fall 2011.
Stay tuned for more updates, and thank you for your continued interest, advice and support. As always, I welcome your comments.
David M. Saunders, PhD
Dean, Queen’s School of Business
DSaunders@business.queensu.ca