Local alumni, friends greet new president
In July 2008, Rob Huntington got the phone call that he had been nominated to be the 14th president of Heidelberg. Now, one year later, he’s not only living this dream of becoming a college president but also experiencing the friendliness, warmth and kindness of a community that impressed him and his family the first time they visited last October.
Thursday night (July 30), about 100 local alumni and Heidelberg friends gathered at Camden Falls to officially welcome President Huntington to the community and hear his vision for an upcoming project at Heidelberg, the renovation of Laird Hall into the Adams Hall for Business.“What struck me from the beginning about Heidelberg is the love and passion that people have for the institution, for the past, the present and aspirations for the future,” he said. “That which we want to hold onto can be preserved, yet we can move forward.”
President Huntington said his greatest expectation for his first year will be the Adams Hall renovation and relocation of the School of Business, a $5 million project that will be “beauty on the outside and brains on the inside.”
For the project, the historic and currently mothballed Laird Hall, in the center of campus, will be transformed into the School of Business, thanks in large part to a $2 million gift from alumnus and Trustee John Q. Adams, ’58, a successful entrepreneur in the pharmaceutical industry.
Plans call for the new facility to be ready by September 2011. When it is complete, the new Adams Hall will feature state-of-the-art wifi, video conferencing capabilities and presentation technology “within a structure with the complete look and feel of a business environment,” said Dr. G. Michael Pratt, associate vice president for Academic Affairs.
Because Heidelberg expects all students to know something about business, Adams Hall is designed to serve the entire student body, Pratt said. The expectation is that the new facility will draw additional business majors, increasing revenue for the university, as has been the case with construction of the new Gillmor Science Hall and Bareis Science Hall renovation. The new facility, he added, also will be available to serve the needs of the local business community.
Dr. Andrew Weiss, director of the School of Business, said business faculty members have been working to clarify, refocus and refine the business curriculum and rearticulate the department’s mission in anticipation of the completion of Adams Hall.
As the faculty outlines its hopes and expectations for future business students , four goals have been developed:
- Stressing a global perspective to show how the world is interconnected. “We don’t want out students to be intimidated by the bigness and complexity of the world,” Weiss said.
- Understanding how markets work.
- Emphasizing that business is about people and how they create value for themselves and others. Inherent in this goal is development of critical thinking, problem solving and communication skills – the outcomes of being liberally educated.
- Underscoring the potential for each student to be effective and socially responsible leaders.
“Five years from now, we want the School of Business to be recognized as one of the truly outstanding undergraduate and graduate business schools in the Midwest, if not the entire country,” Weiss said.
President Huntington said the Adams Hall project represents a wealth of possibilities for Heidelberg.
“We have a unique opportunity to take our liberal arts curriculum and our professional programs and pull the liberal arts thread through those programs in very special ways. It’s an exciting place to do so, and it’s one of the things most exciting about the new School of Business,” he said.
The project is being driven by Heidelberg’s strategic plan, and its primary goal of academic excellence. “That is what we are all about,” President Huntington said.
Posted on July 31, 2009