Construction on new School of Business building to begin summer 2017

Liberty University has announced that it will build an approximately 78,000-square-foot, three-story academic building for the School of Business on the current site of the Elmer Towns Religion Hall, which will be demolished after Commencement 2017. Ground breaking for the new building will begin thereafter, with an expected completion of Fall 2018.

The Religion Hall currently houses faculty and staff from the Rawlings School of Divinity who will be moving to the 17-story Freedom Tower when it opens in January 2018. (Read more about the tower project in the Liberty Journal.)

Currently, Liberty is investing about half a billion dollars into its campus, upgrading some existing buildings while also constructing a number of new academic, athletic, and student life facilities.

The new School of Business facility will complement the classical Jeffersonian architecture of Liberty’s main campus, such as the nearby DeMoss Hall. It will feature a number of innovative spaces, including stock trading simulation rooms with ticker boards, information technology labs, networking and data centers, a 500-seat auditorium, and the Center for Entrepreneurship, which will serve both the campus and local communities.

There will be numerous spaces for students, including meeting rooms, conference rooms, and even board rooms to help them practice presentations.

“The building is being designed with business, entrepreneurship, and technology in mind, ultimately for the purpose of creating value for the students as they enter the marketplace,” said Dr. Scott Hicks, dean of the School of Business. “We have tried to mix student and faculty spaces to create more synergy. The philosophy is that we want our students to take ownership of this. We want it to be theirs, we want them to be proud of it, and we want them to add value to it and to the Liberty community.”

The School of Business offers some of the university’s most popular degree programs, from the associate to the doctoral level, with a number of specializations ranging from information technology to digital marketing & advertising, entrepreneurship, and health care management. Courses teach business principles in a Christ-centered environment, focusing on commitment and service. Graduate programs include Accounting (M.S.) Business Administration (M.B.A.), Executive Leadership (M.A.), Health Informatics (M.S.H.I.) Information Technology (M.S.I.T.) and a Doctor of Business Administration (D.B.A.) with several concentrations. Minors in accounting, business, and information systems are also available.