Hankamer School of Business looks toward new home on east side of campus

After Baylor Stadium, what’s next for the Baylor campus? How about a new home for the Hankamer School of Business?

At their February meeting, Regents approved fundraising for a new facility on the east side of campus (near the Baylor Sciences Building and the upcoming East Village Residential Community) that would offer nearly 40 percent more space for business school students and faculty.

The new 275,000-square-foot business school facility would be roughly half the size of the BSB but twice the size of the McLane Student Life Center and Umphrey Law Center, three of the university’s largest non-athletic construction projects of the last decade. It would also make the current Hankamer-Cashion space occupied by the business school available for other academic needs on campus, benefitting students across disciplines.

Baylor’s business school was established 90 years ago at the behest of President Samuel Palmer Brooks, and over the years, it has been housed in Carroll Library, Old Main and the SUB, among other locations, before moving into its current space in 1960.

Today, the Hankamer School of Business is home to approximately 3,000 Baylor students, accounting for some 20% of the student body. Undergraduates choose from 24 major areas of study, including the No. 2 entrepreneurship program in the country and a top-25 accounting program; graduate programs offer 13 different master’s areas of study and one PhD program.

Sic ’em, Baylor business!