Written by Kylie Akins
In a special Paul R. Carter College of Business Administration chapel held Wednesday, Oct. 27, business students were able to play a part in the Mabee Building’s current construction by signing their names on the expansion’s foundational beams.Dr. Bryan Burks, dean of COBA, said the college simply outgrew its nearly 30-year-old building and started the expansions with students in mind.”We are excited about the building, but it’s just a bunch of steel and concrete, brick and mortar,” Burks said. “It’s about the students. So it makes sense as we have this addition to have the students be a part of it and have some ownership in this.”The construction will incorporate several new classrooms, including a large multipurpose room that will also serve as an auditorium. A student lounge will be created with the addition of a coffee and snack shop and inside and outside eating areas. Rooms that can be used for class break-out sessions and conference rooms for business clubs have been included for students to meet and study in. Throughout the building, open student spaces have also been added.”The goal is that it’s a place that students can just spend time and hang out and visit with each other,” Burks said.The front lobby will be expanded as well to make it possible for the college to host events like career fairs. A new finance center will also be added to the lobby, with a stock ticker trailing from the lobby to the new center, giving the college’s entrance a more businesslike personality, Burks said.A Scripture, written across the beams alongside hundreds of student signatures: Matthew 7:24 — “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock,” was the theme of the event.Burks said allowing the students to be a part of the construction was important for the students in two ways.”One is to say that you were here when it was being built and your name is in the building somewhere,” Burks said. “But secondly, it’s to commit yourself to the foundation of Jesus Christ. Hopefully the students will not only just sign it and say they were here, but they will think about how they are building their ‘house.'”Students who participated in the event said they were excited about their inclusion in the building process.”I think it’s really important that I’m able to do this because when I’m a sophomore, it will be finished,” said John Bone, a freshman management information systems major. “It adds another special aspect for me because I’m signing the beam that’s going to be in this building that other people really won’t be able to see necessarily, but I’ll know it’s there, and I’ll be able to tell people who are younger than me and possibly my kids about it one day.”The current phase of construction is scheduled to finish May 2011, with a second, smaller phase finishing August 2011.
