A New Home for the Business School

Earlier this week class registration took place for fall 2009, and students across campus were designing their schedules for the next academic year.  When choosing classes in college, you have to look at several different factors that affect how your semester will play out.  The professor who teaches the class, the time the class begins and ends (in college 8am is the new 6am, so keep that in mind), and the location of the class are all important details to consider.  As a marketing major, most of my classes have taken place in Tyler Hall, one of the seven buildings surrounding the Sunken Garden and the current home of the Mason School of Business.  Next year this is about to change in a big way.

Over the summer, the Mason School of Business will be moving into Miller Hall, a brand new, state-of-the-art facility located in the southwest area of campus, a stone’s throw from Lake Matoaka.  I’ve watched this building go up for over a year now, and I can’t believe it’s almost ready (check it out at mason.wm.edu).  Both the undergraduate and graduate programs will be housed in this new building, so Tyler Hall and Blow Hall (the current location of the graduate program) will be occupied by new departments.   There should be plenty of space for both business programs in Miller Hall – the new building is so big that you could fit the entire Wren Building in its central courtyard.

I’m excited to take my last set of business classes in this building’s first year of operation.  It was really crazy to see “Miller 1088” listed as the classroom location of one of my courses for the fall when I was registering online; my friends and I joked that there must be 1000+ rooms in Miller.  W&M is the nation’s second oldest university, and if the unique traditions and rich history of the College are not enough to inspire you, the cutting edge facilities like Miller Hall certainly will.

Richard Walsh
Class of 2010