The University announced a $25 million gift from The Chris and Carrie Shumway Foundation last week to fund a new building and new bioscience/business program at the McIntire School of Commerce. A portion of the donation will be matched with $3.5 million from the University’s Strategic Investment Fund, which is a part of the University’s endowment used to fund prioritized initiatives.
This gift from Chris and Carrie Shumway — graduates of the Commerce School — will progress collaboration efforts between the McIntire School of Commerce and the University’s School of Medicine to create educational opportunities that incorporate business concepts into biomedical science and health care leadership studies.
The Board of Visitors approved a proposal in December 2017 for an additional McIntire School academic building to be constructed adjacent to the school’s current facilities on the South Lawn. The proposed project will renovate the entrance wing of Cobb Hall, demolish a portion of the structure facing Jefferson Park Avenue and construct a new addition.
The Board of Visitors designated Cobb Hall as the ideal location that allows for expansion while preserving the sense of community and identity essential to the McIntire School. Construction is anticipated to begin in 2021 but is subject to change pending design and approval steps.
The new facility will bear the Shumway Foundation name and include classroom and lab spaces, faculty and staff offices, research space, formal and informal gathering areas and event space. It is predicted that the multi-story addition and renovation will total approximately 105,000 square feet.
McIntire was ranked third among the nation’s best undergraduate business programs in December and the school’s M.S. in Commerce program was ranked second in the world last year. 703 students are currently enrolled in McIntire’s undergraduate program.
The project aims to give McIntire School a competitive edge by expanding current graduate and executive programs, developing research and study centers, enhancing the portfolio of undergraduate programs and adding new graduate programs.
With the new funding, McIntire and the School of Medicine are currently working on three programs at the intersection of bioscience and business — a dual degree program, a master’s program and a certificate program.
“The current program that we’re working on now, which is going to be focused in the new building beginning before, and leading up to the new constructed, includes a joint program where the biomedical sciences students will enroll in our Masters of Science and Commerce program, which is a current program we have that’s traditionally been a fifth-year experience for undergrads,” McIntire Chief Financial Officer Robert Hoover said. “We’re going to allow and partner with the School of Medicine for the biomedical sciences students to take that program.”
Hoover said that a new certificate program for medical students will offer a business and leadership joint curriculum. He mentioned that McIntire is working towards developing a joint M.S. degree in healthcare leadership targeted at physicians and health professions’ leaders.
The $25 million gift will support the new programs and an additional McIntire School building that encourages collaboration and creates a sense of community through unique learning spaces.
“We’re just looking forward to this shift on Grounds in that direction, that’s going to link the hospital’s School of Medicine and the South end of the Lawn,” Hoover said.
Dr. Randy Canterbury — senior associate dean for educational affairs for the Medical School — said that McIntire and the Medical School have collaborated previously on a leadership program for medical students that teaches basic business principles.
He said that along with providing more physical space, the advanced collaboration will provide support for programs and new faculty to develop and complement the expertise that exists at both schools.
“We have believed for quite a long time in the School of Medicine that it’s important to give physicians leadership skills, because when you get an M.D. degree — regardless of whether you go into academic medicine or into private practice or into research and pharmaceuticals, or in public policy, which is something physicians are doing all the time these days — it’s important to have basic business principles as part of your armamentarium for leadership,” Canterbury said.
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