toledoblade.com --

There was a time, not long ago, when a university lecture hall had few components: seats, a lectern, students, and a professor.

And as for visual aids? Think chalk.

Today, there are all sorts of possibilities: individual data ports from which students can connect laptop computers to the World Wide Web, blackboard-substitutes with an Internet link called Smart boards, and Crestron-brand touch panels that allow instructors to do everything from activate recording of the lecture to flashing a slide on an overhead screen.

That is standard technology in lecture halls at the University of Toledo College of Business Administration's new classroom and conference center.

Boosters and UT officials say the $15.4 million facility, officially known as the Savage & Associates Complex for Business Learning and Engagement, will enhance instruction, strengthen ties to metro Toledo's business community, and assist in student recruitment. It will be officially unveiled in a ceremony at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, but won't be ready for students and instructors until January, when interior work is completed.

Thomas Gutteridge, dean of the University of Toledo School of Business, is proud of the garden on the business college rooftop.
( THE BLADE/JETTA FRASER )

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“It's cutting edge in terms of learning,” said Thomas Gutteridge, who, with local business leaders, began planning for the facility shortly after arriving as business school dean in 2003.

“It is truly state of the art,” added Robert Savage, who helped lead fund-raising efforts and is co-founder of the firm for which the center is named. “Any Ivy League school would be delighted to have that as a new building.”

The building opens at a time when the business school continues to grow.

Enrollment, at 3,400, has been increasing about 2 percent a year, said Mr. Gutteridge. It is UT's second-largest college behind Arts & Sciences and the largest among those focused on professions.

And despite economic turmoil of the past year, business degrees remain a hot commodity, the dean said.

Studies have indicated that fields such as accounting, finance, and sales will offer some of the greatest employment opportunities in the years ahead, he added.

“There is a market out there for our graduates.”

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To distinguish itself among business colleges, UT is one of a small number of programs offering a sales major. The business college's master's degree program is rated among the top 300 worldwide by the Princeton Review.

Mr. Gutteridge had experience with building projects at other business college postings in Illinois and Connecticut.

“I knew how important a new facility was in generating excitement and what it could do to lift a college business school to the next level,” the dean said.

Stranahan Hall, built in the mid 1980s, is primarily an office building and lacks adequate classroom space, the dean said. As a consequence, business instruction takes place there as well as at University Hall and elsewhere.

Victoria Irmen, a 21-year-old master's student from Waterville who is majoring in finance, welcomes the new facility. Current classroom space is less than ideal, she said. “The new environment will be exciting for students.”

Along with enhancing academics, the new center also will boost the university's outreach to the local business community, the dean noted. It will house programs such as UT's Family & Privately Held Business Center and will rent conference space for corporate meetings.

WHOSE NAME IS ON WHAT?

Here is a list of rooms and programs at the new UT business college for which donations were made for naming rights:
• College of Business Alumni Affiliate Alcove
• College of Business Alumni Affiliate Study Room
• The Andersons Commons Area Lounge
• Paul Block, Sr. Lecture Hall
• William J. and Catherine L. Carroll Lecture Hall
• Steven M. Cavanaugh Classroom
• Edwin Dodd, Dana and Owens- Illinois Business Ethics and Social Policy Initiative
• DWD Technology Seminar Room
• Ernst & Young LLP Leadership Lab
• College of Business Administration Faculty & Staff Classroom
• James R. and Celia L. Findlay Suite, outreach & engagement
• FirstEnergy Boardroom
• Thomas G. and Judith K. Gutteridge Student Organizations Office
• Health Care REIT Lecture Hall
• HCR ManorCare Graduate Program Suite
• Huntington Professional Sales Lab
• Tom James Company Sales Seminar Room
• KeyBank Lobby
• Ronald R. Langenderfer Suite, business career programs
• LaValley Family Rooftop Garden
• Pat and Marilyn McAlear Glass Bridge
• Richard W. and Martha McEwen Information & Technology Management Lab
• John B. & Lillian E. Neff Trading Room
• Paychex Sales Seminar Room
• PNC Entrepreneurship Lab
• James A Poure Conference Room
• Robert C. and Susan M. Savage Atrium
• Edward H. Schmidt School of Professional Sales
• David A. Speicher Seminar Room
• Taylor Automotive Family Lecture Hall
• 3M Sales Conference Room
• Frederick J. and Julie B. Treuhaft Family Classroom
• Women & Philanthropy at The University of Toledo Classroom

At first glance, the four-story structure looks much like other buildings on the Bancroft Street campus opened in 1931. Its front and rear has the same Lannen Stone facade as other buildings. (Factory-made stone was used to save $300,000)

But, viewed from another vantage point, the building's sides are long rows of glass divided by dark framing that creates a rectangular pattern.

“It's sleek,” Bob Mackowiak, a business school marketing representative, said. “It almost suggests computer chips.”

Munger Munger & Associates Architects Inc., Toledo, designed the building. Wilson Builders, Toledo, was the contractor.

The four-story center, which is connected to the business school's Stranahan Hall by a glass walkway, has 54,000 square feet of space and includes 10 classrooms seating up to 125; eight conference rooms; a securities trading room and four other learning labs focusing on areas such as sales and entrepreneurship; a 40-seat boardroom, and a rooftop garden.

Every seat in the classrooms will include a data port for students to connect to the Internet with lap-top computers, which every new student will be required to possess.

Blackboards are out. Instead, instructors will be able to use interactive Smart boards or white boards, that will allow them to download diagrams and other contents to a file which students can later access on the Internet.

“This is the most technologically advanced building on campus,” said Richard Sheets, who is managing the project for UT's facilities and construction department.

Before construction began, there were obstacles to overcome, however.

The space available was small. Planners had to shoehorn the structure between three other buildings: Stranahan Hall, the Ritter Observatory, and Gillham Hall. Once excavation began, they had to deal with unmapped underground pipes dating from the first years of the campus, Mr. Sheets said.

The state of Ohio paid for the bulk of the building — $12 million — through a bond sale.

But businesses contributed $3.3 million for naming rights to classrooms and conference rooms. The complex was named for Savage & Associates, a Toledo insurance and financial services firm, after more than 25 executives donated a combined $1 million.

Prices for naming rights for other space were $5,000 to $350,000.

Another large award, for $900,000, came from the Kresge Foundation in suburban Detroit.

To aid the fund-raising campaign, the business dean and Mr. Savage, who retired in 2003 as chief executive of Savage & Associates, enlisted local power brokers such as Paul Ormond, chief executive of HCR ManorCare Inc.; Richard Anderson, retired chairman of The Andersons Inc.; James Hoffman, president of KeyBank's northwest Ohio district; John Szuch, chairman of Fifth Third Bank (Northwestern Ohio), and James Murray, retired president of Ohio operations for FirstEnergy Corp.

The money they helped raise was well spent, Mr. Savage said.

“The whole complex is geared to ultra modern, high tech education, which should surely change the education students receive and make them much more valuable to the companies that hire them.”

Contact Gary Pakulski at:gpakulski@theblade.comor 419-724-6082.

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