By: Jehiely Balabarca
Southern Adventist University officially celebrated the grand opening of the Ruth McKee School
of Business on Friday, Oct. 2, marking the completion of a fully donor-funded facility designed
to give the School of Business a dedicated academic home and expand learning opportunities for
students across disciplines.
Although the grand opening took place Oct. 2, the building had been available for use for more
than two months.
Vincent Schober, associate vice president for Financial Administration and Facilities, said
Southern received a temporary certificate of occupancy July 23, allowing professors to begin
moving into their offices and classes to be held in the building. Schober said the project
remained on its original construction timeline, with crews continuing work after the temporary
certificate was issued. The building was ready for the grand opening by the night of Oct. 1.
“As of today, we have not had any budgetary issues and are still on budget,” Schober said, noting
that the project was completely donor funded.
The ceremony brought university administrators, students, alumni, donors, members of the
McKee family and community leaders together outside the building. Although classes have been
taking place in the facility during the fall semester, the event served as its formal grand opening
and dedication.
Speakers reflected on the years of planning and fundraising behind the project, Ruth McKee’s
business legacy and the facility’s anticipated impact on students. The program concluded with a
prayer of dedication, musical performances and a ceremonial ribbon cutting.
Construction of the building was funded entirely through donations, with materials distributed
during the ceremony, as well as the banner hanging outside the new building, stating the funds
came from “donors and friends of Southern Adventist University.”
Franklin Farrow, a 1993 Southern alumnus, donor and chair of the building’s fundraising
campaign, said seeing the completed project was “kind of surreal.” Farrow attended Southern as
a business student and now employs Southern students, interns and graduates through his
company (Morning Point Senior Living).
“To be a business school student, and then now be able to be a donor and be a part of what
happened,” Farrow said, “to come back and be a part of this, is amazing.”
According to Farrow, the building was funded through donations before it opened. He said the
project did not take resources from other university programs.
“There’s never a good or bad time to launch a major endeavor like this,” Farrow said. “The fact
that we can have this paid for before the doors are opened with donations, that means that
Southern didn’t get impacted negatively. It didn’t detract from any other programs.”
Dionne Felix, associate vice president for Academic Administration, described the completed
building as the result of a lengthy process of “negotiation, and funding, and dreaming and dream
building.”
Felix compared watching the project develop to watching a house being constructed, from
preparing the land and foundation to finally seeing people occupy the completed space.
“To watch everybody come from the community, our legislators, our partners, it just was an
amazing event,” she said.
Some of the work behind the completed building is not visible to those walking through it.
Schober said more than 200 piers extend to bedrock beneath the School of Business to support its
foundation because the soil underneath could not adequately support the building.
A Dedicated Home for Business Students
The building’s name recognizes Ruth McKee, co-founder of the family business that became
McKee Foods.
For Brittany McKee East, McKee’s great-granddaughter, the dedication brought particular
significance. East said recognition of her family’s business history has often centered on O.D.
McKee, despite Ruth McKee’s role as a co-founder.
“I’m proud,” East said. “I think it’s great to recognize her.”
East said she also appreciates what the new facility provides for current students.
“I really like that the School of Business now has a home,” she said.
That distinction is already noticeable to students who previously took business courses in shared
academic spaces.
Matthew DeOliveira, a senior accounting major, previously attended business classes in Brock
Hall, where the program shared space with the English Department and the History and Political
Sciences Department. He said having a dedicated facility has created more opportunities for
business students to interact between classes, study together and visit professors.
“I finally feel like we have a place on campus,” DeOliveira said. “It was built for us.”
Andrew Cornelius, a senior accounting major and vice president of the Business Club, estimated
that he spends approximately 30 hours in the building each week. Nearly all of his classes are
held there, and the Business Club uses a dedicated room for meetings and office work.
Cornelius pointed to the lobby’s stock ticker, study spaces and fourth-floor auditorium among
the building’s features. He has also noticed students from outside the School of Business using
the facility.
“I see a lot of non-business majors come in here to study,” Cornelius said.
Prince Atama, a senior health and wellness major, is one of them.
Atama is taking accounting, marketing and management courses in the building this semester.
He said he spends about fifteen hours a week there and often remains after class to study.
“You really focus because it’s quiet,” he said.
Opportunities beyond the School of Business
Farrow said he hopes that cross-disciplinary use continues. He pointed to nursing students
learning management skills and music majors studying music management as examples of ways
business education could complement other fields.
“There [are] so many cross-collaborations that can happen among the various departments,”
Farrow said. “This allows us to do so many things, not just for the School of Business.”
Farrow also said the facility could help the program respond to a professional environment that is
changing rapidly, particularly with developments in artificial intelligence. He said students need
exposure not only to established business concepts but also to developments that may be only
weeks old.
“The speed that we can deliver that knowledge is [going to] be a differentiator for us,” Farrow
said.
Despite the new building and changing technology, Felix said she hopes one element of
Southern’s business education remains unchanged- its emphasis on mission and service.
“I hope that remains cemented in its core, in its purpose and its anticipated outcomes,” Felix
said.
The goal, she said, is for students to understand that their education is more than preparation for
a grade or career.
They walk in to learn, and they walk out to serve,” she said.
Looking beyond Campus
Collegedale Commissioner Laura Howse said she hopes the impact of the building eventually
reaches the surrounding community.
“The city and the university work together to make things great for the community,” Howse said.
“When we are partners and we support each other, then I think great things happen.”
She hopes some School of Business graduates choose to remain in the area, establish businesses
and create jobs.
“I’m really looking forward to [when] graduates from the School of Business stay in town and
invest in our city and create new businesses and new jobs for the rest of our community,” Howse
said.
During the ceremony, senior cyber security major Chase Slikkers said the building’s long-term
impact will ultimately extend beyond its physical features.
“The impact is more than the physical structure,” Slikkers said. He mentioned conversations with
professors that go beyond homework and into students’ personal relationships with God, adding
that those relationships can inspire students “to do hard things, push outside of [their] comfort
zone and explore what missional business looks like.”
