Concrete collaboration

VCU’s new joint home for business and engineering nurtures future executives

With innovative teachers, award-winning students and a new, state-of-the-art joint home for the schools of Business and Engineering near completion, Virginia Commonwealth University is proving to local employers that the schools are integral to bringing fresh talent into the work force.

In fact, the cohesive campus was the brainchild of local business leaders William H. Goodwin and Steven A. Markel, who also spearheaded the engineering and business campaign efforts, respectively, lending leadership and personal philanthropic support.

Engineering Dean Russell D. Jamison, Ph.D., said VCU’s unique approach to nurturing students has resulted in graduates who transition easily and successfully into the competitive job market.

“Our approach to linking business and engineering in the new Monroe Park Campus expansion is … a vital component to raising our level of competitiveness in the coming years,” Jamison said. “Combined with that, our growing partnership with the VCU Medical Center allows us to offer students and faculty exceptional research opportunities in collaboration with medical faculty members. Our faculty is engaged in diverse research, with many leading their fields.”

That excellence also is evident to local companies looking for talented new employees. Steven B. Brincefield (M.S. ’74/B), senior vice president at commercial real estate firm Thalhimer/Cushman & Wakefield, said he recently hired three VCU graduates.

“Thalhimer has found that VCU graduates are well-trained academically, articulate and socially prepared to merge easily into the business environment,” Brincefield said. “We believe that VCU’s urban university setting and the university’s close ties to the surrounding business community provide a beneficial platform for learning and developing those business skills crucial for success.”

VCU’s performance at the 2005 and 2006 Microsoft Imagine Cup competitions is another example of the successful collaboration between the schools of Engineering and Business. For two years in a row, a VCU team represented the U.S. in the international competition. Their projects were based on a theme sponsored by Microsoft, and both teams placed among the top 12 in the world.

“In much the same manner as the capstone practicum required of all information systems students, students who participated in the Imagine Cup competition were able to direct their skills and education toward a real problem without the ‘safety net’ of the academy,” said Imagine Cup supervisor Jeffry Babb, who is also a VCU graduate and teaches informational systems in the School of Business. “I liken the experience to what might be encountered in a great internship. Except in this case, the students had to be much more self-motivated and self-actuated.”

Now, with the projected completion of the 11-acre, $228 million Monroe Park Campus expansion, which was a major component of the Campaign for VCU, the schools’ students will learn in cutting-edge facilities.

The four-story business building will include a 200-seat auditorium, a café and a joint career center. Another feature is the Wallace Johnston Room, located on the first floor of the School of Business building. The space, provided by donated funds and named after beloved VCU professor “Dr. Wally,” who passed away this year, will be used as a team-building room where students can meet to discuss strategies and plan presentations.

An expansion of the engineering school will feature an enhanced health and life sciences engineering laboratory and research space. In addition, the new Da Vinci Center will offer students a program through which they can coordinate creative projects with other VCU schools, including the School of the Arts, Jamison said.

“The new School of Engineering expansion will allow us to increase our student enrollment from 1,100 to 1,700 students over the next seven years and will provide critical laboratory and research space for our faculty members and students,” Jamison said.

Likewise, the new building gives business students about 135,000 square feet in which to study and allows for an enrollment increase of about 1,000.

This growth would not be possible without private support, Jamison said.

“Our scholarship funding has grown tremendously, and this alone makes us much more competitive,” Jamison said.