BVU looks to move the Lamberti Center for Rural Entrepreneurship and Criminal Justice labs to Grand Hall after receiving a $2 million donation from an anonymous benefactor.
On February 13, BVU released an announcement to the public about its plans to move forward with the project next semester. Grand Hall was chosen to be remodeled after considering various factors such as being distance for students, accessibility, and the amount of space needed.
“Grand was a great location because it’s just a block or so off fifth street right off the main drag,” said BVU President Lenzmeier. “There’s parking there we can devote specifically to that building. It’s big enough square footage wise you can fit in the spaces we envision for the entrepreneurship area. But also, then [on] the second-floor kind of leveraging half of that for the Center for Criminal Justice Studies.”
According to Lenzmeier, the donation came in over the summer and they began to work with architects. Administration wanted to be certain the new apartments would be completed before decommissioning of Grand Hall.
“The timing of this announcement came off of we just had our board of trustees meeting. And so, wanting them informed and on board,” said Lenzmeier.
Lenzmeier added how the administration wanted to notify students of this change so they can have it in mind when thinking about room draws.
One of the major goals of the BVU Business program is to prepare students for the world beyond BVU’s walls and know what to expect when running their own business in the real world.
Katherine Cota, Director of Lamberti Center for Rural Entrepreneurship and Instructor of Entrepreneurship, said, “That was something that was of interest to the primary donor that we were preparing the students for the world beyond BVU.”
As of this article there is no exact plan for what will the done with the third floor of the building. One idea, however, is to put classrooms on the third floor so students can walk from class to their labs or the Lamberti Center for Rural Entrepreneurship. There are also no concrete plans for Swope, the building where Criminal Justice Studies currently resides, and The Foundry, the downtown building where the Lamberti Center for Rural Entrepreneurship currently resides.
Though the center is connected to the school of business, students of any major are welcome to use the space for their entrepreneurship endeavors.
“A lot of non-business students actually are entrepreneurs and start their own businesses,” said Cota.
With a new center in sight for BVU’s future, students will have new opportunities with an old building.
