While most business colleges have entrepreneurship studies integrated into their curriculum, the College of Business is taking it a huge leap further. Spurred by a generous donation from OSU alumnus Ken Austin and his wife, Joan, OSU will be one of the first universities in the U.S. to establish an entrepreneurial residential learning program where students will live, eat, learn, work and dream together in an incubator community.
“This is an opportunity for OSU to be different from other universities and help give the school an edge,” said Ken Austin.
“This will be a place for students to dream, broaden their horizons, interact with each other and pursue their passion,” said Joan Austin. “I give to things that make me feel good and I’ve never given a gift to OSU that has made me feel so good.”
The gift from the Austins, co-owners of Newberg-based dental equipment manufacturer A-dec, Inc., will enable the state to release $14 million in state bond funding to renovate aging Weatherford Hall, a majestic campus dormitory with a colorful history that has stood empty awaiting repairs for almost a decade. The new program in entrepreneurship, to be housed in the renovated residence hall, will bring students, professors and visiting business leaders together in a live-in setting designed to catalyze new business ventures started by students.
“The entrepreneurship program at Weatherford Hall will be a resource for business education,” said Ilene Kleinsorge, Interim Dean of the College of Business. "By collaborating with other OSU colleges such as Engineering, Pharmacy, Forestry and others, we’ll be providing a dynamic, diversified environment to spur innovation and entrepreneurial learning among residents and will also provide professional programs for the community at-large.”
Mark Green will lead the new Entrepreneurship program. Green currently is the director of the Austin Family Business Program and leader on an international research project focused on entrepreneurship.
“Our goal is to help ‘formalize’ the chaos of entrepreneurship by providing entrepreneurs with business acumen to succeed,” said Green. “We’ve graduated many entrepreneurs from this college and now we’ll have a focused program to encourage more innovativeness that we hope will have a long-term impact on Oregon’s economy.”
Although renovation of Weatherford Hall will not be complete until the fall of 2004, the first class of entrepreneurial students will enroll and begin coursework in fall 2003. In addition to residence hall rooms that will accommodate 285 students, the renovated Weatherford Hall will feature a cyber-café, business incubator spaces, a library, seminar rooms, and apartments for visiting faculty and business leaders.
To date, the College of Business has raised $4.7 million toward the $5 million goal to refurbish Weatherford Hall and launch the Austin Entrepreneurship Program. Once this goal is accomplished, the College of Business will begin raising $7 million to support entrepreneurship programming.
A total of 33 donors have pledged or paid at least $5,000 over five years to name a room in Weatherford Hall. Bernie Newcomb, ’65, has named the Cyber Café with a gift of $250,000; Payson Cha, ’68, named the old living room in honor of international students; and several donors have named lounges, terraces and the new dining/kitchen area. Larry Hawley Brown, ’58, made a $100,000 gift to name the Tower Library for his great-grandfather’s family. Brown’s grandfather was one of the original regents for whom the wings of Weatherford Hall were named (and later became the separate Hawley Hall). The OSU Student Foundation pledged $10,000 to name the sauna, a Weatherford original which will be retained in the remodel. Several OSU legacy families have named rooms in honor of their parents and one alumna named her husband’s old dorm room as a birthday gift.
“In 20 years of fund raising, this is the most compelling project for which I’ve raised money,” said Lori Cloninger Sweeney, OSU Foundation COB development director. “It’s about student-centered entrepreneurship in a renovated OSU icon that will help propel the College of Business, OSU and the state into the 21st Century.”
