Hankamer building celebrates milestone while preparing for new era

The Hankamer name means business here at Baylor, and has for more than five decades. Fifty-five years ago this month — Nov. 12, 1960 — the cornerstone was laid for the Hankamer Building at the corner of 5th Street and Speight Avenue. When the building was completed six months later, it would house the first of generations of Baylor business students, seeing the business school through periods of tremendous growth.

This year, the highly-ranked Hankamer School of Business moved out of the building, which was named after Baylor Board member and business school benefactor Earl Hankamer, and into the stunning Paul L. Foster Campus for Business and Innovation. The move to the Foster Campus, one of the finest academic buildings in the nation, isn’t only good news for Baylor business, but for other departments as well.

The move opens up space in the Hankamer Building and the attached Cashion Academic Center that will provide a transformational new home for three Baylor departments. Fifty-five years after the cornerstone was set, renovations on the Hankamer Cashion Complex are underway, preparing the facility to house Baylor’s Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Department of Computer Science, and Center for Global Engagement starting next fall.

More than $26 million in renovations will update the building and provide a significant upgrade, both in space and in facilities, for the departments moving in. The 164,000-square-foot facility will come alive again next year with not only classrooms, but labs — space for Computer Science students to solve problems, program and prepare for a career, and for Communication Sciences and Disorders students to work with children and adults alike to help them overcome the verbal challenges they face.

The Hankamer name means business, but soon it will also mean opportunity for the departments that will make the building home for a new generation of Baylor students.

Sic ’em, Hankamer/Cashion!