• 
• CLASS
• JOBS
• AUTO
• HOMES

UW-Whitewater putting on a corporate face

Photo Gallery

UW-Whitewater Hyland Hall

Much of the new Hyland Hall business building on the UW-Whitewater campus was designed to look more like a corporate office space than a traditional education building.

View Gallery

WHITEWATER — UW-Whitewater visitors, including alumni, businesspeople and community members, are stopping and staring at a four-story headquarters for innovation and education.

Timothy J. Hyland Hall, the new College of Business and Economics building, is changing the face of business education, college officials say.

“It gives us an image,” said Lois Smith, dean of the business school. “It reinforces the quality of our education.”

Hyland Hall was designed to emulate a corporate environment and to emphasize the honors the College of Business and Economics has received from several publications, including being named a best business school by the Princeton Review for the last three years.

“It gives students experience in a corporate environment before they leave college,” Smith said. “It gives them an idea of what things might look like, what things might feel like in the corporate world.”

Hyland is a state-of-the-art center for hands-on learning and community outreach, officials said.

Smith pointed to features intended to enhance learning and make UW-Whitewater the school for business education:

-- Classrooms and lecture halls equipped with multimedia technology, including audio and video podcasting capabilities.

-- Computer labs featuring the latest software and hardware. Three computer labs are designed for students majoring in management computer systems; the computers can be taken apart and put back together, and the floors are raised to allow for rerouting of network cables.

-- The Kachel Center for Innovation and Business Development. It houses several business outreach centers, including the Small Business Development Center, the Wisconsin Center for Information Technology Services and the Fiscal and Economic Research Center.

-- The Applied Investment Center, or “the trading room.” It provides for real and simulated stock trading and serves as a computer lab for students who can earn Bloomberg certification. It features two stock tickers, one in the classroom and one visible from the outside.

-- The Deloitte Café, the centerpiece of the student area. It includes a counter where students can buy coffee, soda and snacks; comfortable chairs for studying or hanging out and an outdoor terrace.

Elise Oldenburg, a 20-year-old Burlington junior majoring in business finance, said Hyland Hall is an impressive building.

“It’s way cool,” she said. “It doesn’t look like a school building. It’s more ‘now.’”

Angela Wicklund, 20, Waukesha, a senior majoring in human resources, said the attractive building likely will be what prospective business students remember as they look at colleges.

“I think it’ll attract more students,” she said. “Who’s going to want to be in a boring, old building when they can be an awesome, new building?”

The women sat in the café between classes Wednesday morning, reading world news headlines on a table outfitted with a Microsoft Surface, a touch-screen computer that responds to hand gestures.

It’s something they never would have done at the former College of Business and Economics building.

In fact, there are a lot of things going at Hyland Hall that never could have happened at Carlson Hall.

Smith said the difference between the two buildings is significant.

Carlson Hall had classrooms and faculty offices—“that’s it,” she said—but Hyland Hall has modern classrooms; offices for faculty, staff and student organizations; and a four-story atrium marked by blue-tinted glass and accented by a commissioned art piece.

“The energy in this place is exciting,” she said. “We’re really proud of this place. And we’re really thankful to our alumni and to the state of Wisconsin for giving us this building.”