Those who have passed through the halls of the second floor of Alumni Building in the past may not recognize the space now. The business wing has undergone a massive renovation to create a technology-driven modern space designed for a collaborative business atmosphere. 

Dr. Richard Stratton, dean of the School of Business, said they wanted to build a place for students, alumni and faculty to “hang out” and easily interact in spaces that don’t feel like traditional classrooms.

The new space will be known as the Co-Lab, the school announced.

In an email inviting guests to an upcoming affinity reunion and dedication of the space on Oct. 12 during Homecoming 2024, Dr. Stratton said the Co-Lab “is a tangible first step towards realizing our vision for the School of Business, a place for teaching excellence, professional networking, and inspiring our students to be ‘Gospel-focused and Career-ready.'”

Although its completion happened this year, the vision of a business lab came about 10 years ago in the minds of accounting professor Jeff Bryson and Dr. Mike Buiter, former dean of the School of Business. Funds began to be collected for the project, but due to “different roadblocks” the updated space had to be put on hold, Dr. Stratton said. However, once the time came to move forward with the project, the funding raised 10 years ago was a nice push towards completion of the total goal, he said. For this new business space, approximately $725,000 was raised with the help of 32 different donors, almost all of whom were alumni.

Dr. Stratton said that these former students were “very thankful for what they got here and wanted to give back.”

Gallery • 3 Photos

Derek Eckenroth

Photo courtesy of BJU.

The renovation concept started with just an idea to redo one room – room 216 – and grew from there as faculty brainstormed, he said.

‘Well, why don’t we expand this, and why don’t we have a space out here where students can hang out? Where they can collaborate?” Dr. Stratton said of faculty discussions. “And so, the vision started expanding.”

Thus, the work began. In the Alumni Building, rooms 200 and 201 were removed to make way for the collaboration space. Room 216 is now a classroom that can function as a business lab.

In this new space, look for the world clock wall. This interesting feature serves as a reminder that “business is a 24/7 kind of thing, and it’s happening all the time.”

The updated business wing includes technologically rich rooms. Room 217 has video conferencing installed with microphones and cameras that can pan towards different speakers in the room. This will enable guest speakers from different cities and even different countries to be able to interact with and participate in business sessions.

In the collaboration space, a video wall hosts four different feeds: Bob Jones University announcements, business and digital messages from a variety of sources, a showcase of School of Business associations, and an alumni spotlight, which Dr. Stratton noted he was “probably most excited about.” The spotlight feed is a way of showing what alumni are doing post-graduation, he explained.

Laurilyn Hall, Art+Design professor, led the interior design of the space and chose modern furnishings and décor.

Dr. Stratton said they are thankful for the space and see it as a start with further expansion in mind.

“We look forward to doing more and more and giving our students the facilities, the faculty, everything that they need to get a really excellent education,” he said.