I have always believed that any educational institution is an arena that provides us space and freedom for our eternal quest for learning and truth. On my first visit to our new campus, Miller Hall, I was convinced that the new building will position the Mason School of Business as a premier institution allowing the new crop of managers to explore and achieve new frontiers in the field of business and management education.

As we transit to this new facility in next few months, the whole world order — especially the management education will be going through a transition. Value creation through “wall-street antiques” is being replaced by “ideas and innovation.”  The impact of recent global economic meltdown has converted “I” to “we.” Moving to this new building will help our community foster some of these key ideas.

Miller Hall will house all the programs offered by the business school under one roof. There would be new areas and opportunities for students from different courses to come together to discuss, collaborate and innovate. Study rooms, common dining areas, library, break-out rooms, lounges and cafe patio will encourage constant interaction between faculty, students, corporate leaders and scholars about the current business issues and challenges.

The new building is going to be equipped with cutting edge technology. The WI-FI enabled campus will have numerous bloomberg terminals, video conferencing facilities for interviews and remote meetings and exhaustive list of databases accessible through the library. These resources will help students to access quality information at virtually a touch of a button, drastically improving the quality and scope of our work and research.

The largest building on William and Mary campus would provide sprawling space for new initiatives that would integrate and further our focus on “experience based business education.” New initiatives like “Executive in Residence” and “Distinguished Speaker Series” will bring the Who’s Who of global corporate world to our campus enriching our learning process. There would also be a renewed impetus on developing relationships with corporations and alumni around the world.

The economic, business and societal challenges that we face today excite and agitate our minds. Businesses and managers of 21st century will be created in the classrooms of Miller Hall and they will remake the new corporate world.