Construction is underway for the future James M. CollinsExecutive Education Center — an addition to the nationallyranked Cox School of Business that will provide a new face to theschool’s existing top-level executive education programs.
The new building, designed by the Hillier Group, is scheduledfor completion in March 2005 and will be one of only seven businessinstitutes in the nation designated specifically for executiveeducation.
Located adjacent to the Laura Lee Blanton Building on thesouthwest corner of the East Quadrangle, the building will housethe Division of Executive and Management Development, the ExecutiveMBA Program, the Southwestern Graduate School of Banking and theKPMG Institute for Corporate Governance.
“The purpose of housing these [existing programs] togetheris to make them more easily accessible to business people who cometo campus, giving them state-of-the-art facilities to enhance theireducation,” said Patricia LaSalle, the associate vicepresident for Public Affairs.
LaSalle also said that the programs will continue to allowalready degreed and working professionals the ability to hone andupdate their higher-level business, leadership and managementskills.
Along with these programs, the Collins Center will include a318-seat auditorium, a 120-seat dining room, a 24-seat boardroom,an executive lounge, a business center, four 66-seat classrooms, 15seminar rooms and a rooftop terrace.
In addition to generous commitments from Dorothy”Dee” Collins Torbert, the Collins family and the JamesM. Collins Foundation, many alumni, parents, corporations andfriends have contributed to the $18.3 million project, $17.2million of which has already been raised.
According to Wynn Hartley, SMU’s director of marketing andcommunications, many corporations dropped their in-house trainingand education programs in order to cut costs and related overheaddue to an economic slump in past years.
Hartley also said, “As the economy rebounds, we are seeingcompanies return to universities to deliver education and trainingto their employees. Additionally, by working with a university,companies have access to so much more than just the training andeducation, such as networking opportunities and access toprofessors and cutting edge research.”
This is why local companies like Ernst & Young havedonated.
David Alexander, the vice chair and Southwest area managingpartner, said, “At Ernst & Young we believed it wascritical to support SMU’s Cox School of Business in itsefforts to establish the James M. Collins Executive EducationCenter. With the collective commitment of the Dallas businesscommunity, this Center will enable the Cox School to have an evengreater impact on the future of our city.”
However, according to some students, the current constructionposes many transportation problems.
First-year student and McElveney resident Austin Hill said,”Since there’s no sidewalk on one side, manypedestrians walk in the street instead of the other sidewalk.Because the fence narrows the street already, the pedestrians makeit even narrower so the road is nearly impossible to drivethrough.”
Hill added that he looks forward to the completion of the centerso he can enjoy a more easily navigable route through campus.
Although maneuvering around the construction site may be a bitburdensome for all students, Pam Conlin, the director ofdevelopment at Cox, asserts that the potential benefits once thebuilding is completed heavily outweigh the costs.
“The Collins Center will attract new companies to SMU thatmight otherwise have no reason to come to the campus, and it willenhance corporate relationships, possibly providing many internshipand job opportunities for undergraduate and graduatestudents,” said Conlin.
The new center honors the late Jim Collins, who graduated fromSMU in 1937 with a bachelor’s degree in Marketing, and thenlater earned MBA degrees from Northwestern and Harvarduniversities.
Collins served seven terms in the House of Representatives from1968 to 1983, was president of the Fidelity Union Life InsuranceCompany, taught several business classes on campus and served onthe SMU Board of Trustees before his death in 1989. His many awardsinclude The National Association of Businessmen’s Watchdog ofthe Treasury Award, The National Taxpayer’s Union Award forFiscal Responsibility, and SMU’s Distinguished Alumni Awardin 1971.
In 1997, SMU pledged to raise $300 million in five years —the biggest drive in SMU history. In five years, the universitymanaged to raise more than $532 million dollars, some of which hascontributed to the funding of the Collins Center.