Business school plans celebration for Grainger Hall addition

The University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Business will hold a kickoff ceremony to celebrate the start of the construction of a $40.5 million addition to Grainger Hall.

“The addition to the School of Business will provide an important expansion of our facilities to better serve the needs of students and the university community,” says School of Business Dean Michael Knetter. “I am excited to celebrate this project and share it with the alumni, students and faculty and staff.”

The “Expanding Our Foundation for the Future” event will take place at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 14, at the business school’s annual Homecoming Bash for alumni in the Grainger Hall atrium. It will honor the project’s benefactors, who donated 75 percent of the funding for the addition.

Chancellor John D. Wiley and Board of Regents President David Walsh are expected to attend. The marching band, spirit squad and Bucky Badger will perform at the event.

The 131,416-square-foot addition will house the MBA programs of the School of Business and will include state-of-the-art classrooms, the MBA Program Office and Career Center, and homes for the MBA specializations.

The addition, which is set to open in fall 2008, will also include a new dining facility, an undergraduate computer lab and student organization offices. The move of each of the career specializations that make up the new Wisconsin MBA to the new addition will free up space in the current Grainger Hall for the undergraduate and Ph.D. programs.

Media interested in covering the construction kickoff should contact Lari Fanlund, (608) 262-2401, for further information.