VCU School of Business

The School of Business opened its doors on September 22, 1937 and was known as the School of Store Service Education. Henry Hibbs, president of the Richmond Division of the College of William and Mary, had secured a federal grant to train executives for the growing retail sector. The school trained educators to teach salesmanship and retailing as well as department store training programs.[3]VCU School of Business has grown from an initial class of 11 students to a student body of nearly 4,000.[4]

In 1944, there were eight men enrolled full-time. By 1948, male enrollment had increased to 890 students, transforming RPI from chiefly women's college into a coeducational institution. This was primarily caused by the enactment of the G.I. Bill of Rights. Accounting was added as a degree and in 1946. The Department of Business Administration became the School of Business.[3]

In 1958, the School of Business founded the Adult Business Education Center to serve area companies through short-term courses, workshops and seminars. It is now known as the Center for Corporate Education.[5]

The DaVinci Center

The Experimental Economics Lab, opened in 1986 and was the first of its kind to employ the IBM PC network as a tool for replicating actual market environments.[5]

The VCU Executive MBA (formerly the Fast Track Executive MBA) was founded in 1994 and has attracted more than 1,000 mid-level executives and professionals. Universal Corp provided a grant in 1994 that allowed VCU to establish the first International Business Forum.[6]

Steven A. Markel, vice chairman of Markel Corporation, who was also chair of the school's executive leadership committee, and William H. Goodwin Jr., president and CEO of CCA Industries Inc. chaired of the VCU School of Engineering foundation. He came up with the idea to join forces and expand VCU's campus across Belvidere Street. An initial $10 million gift from Steve and Kathie Markel (the largest donation in the school's history) and $1 million from Tom and Vickie Snead, initiated a business campaign to bring more donated funds into the School of Business Foundation. The Foundation raised $51.5 million, which funded the construction of Snead Hall.[7]

Prior to 2007, students were given advice and steered toward internships and jobs by faculty, the University Career Center, and alumni volunteers. Among its other functions, VCU Integrated a dedicated space for career services catered to business students into Snead Hall.[7]

The da Vinci Center of Innovation was created in 2008. The da Vinci Center combines the VCU School of Engineering, VCU School of the Arts and the VCU School of Business into innovation teams that work on creative ways to solve business problems.[7]

• Ginter House (1937)- The site of the first business classes taught in the School of Store Service Education. Known to students simply as 901 S. Franklin St. The Ginter House was built from 1888-1892 and is considered the finest example of Richardsonian architecture in Virginia.[10]
• Franklin Street Gym (1950s) - RPI's first new building. The art department and the secretarial science department of the School of Business was housed here. The director of the School of Business also had his office in the new gym.[10]
• School of Business Building (1972) - Currently known as Grace E. Harris Hall, the School of Business Building was a 90 classroom building opened in 1972 thanks to $3.917 million in funding from the Commonwealth of Virginia.[11]