The Cornwall School of Business and Leadership will begin to admit new and returning students.
Taylor University received a $10 million gift to fund the new Cornwall School of Business and Leadership. Ken and Virginia Cornwall, the benefactors of the gift, have funded other projects within the Life to the Full campaign, their gifts totaling more than $18 million.
Funds will be allocated to a few specific areas, including new program development, support for current and new faculty and space renovations, Provost Jewerl Maxwell said.
Currently, the Business Department is searching for three candidates to fill the new faculty positions, Jody Hirschy, dean of the School of Business and Leadership and executive director of graduate programs and leadership, said. The eventual hope is that the School of Business and Leadership would reside in the renovated Ayres Hall for additional space.
The $10 million may be allocated to include experiential learning opportunities, Hirschy said. These experiences would include anything that is hands-on learning for business students, including global trips, client projects or academic and professional conferences.
The main reasoning behind creating a school of business is to increase legitimacy to the Business department and the degrees earned by students at Taylor.
“It’s a nod to the individuals, Ken and Virginia Cornwall, who made this possible,” Hirschy said. “They are truly excellent Christian business professionals, and it gives us an ideal to look to as we train the next generation of Chrisitan leaders.”
Additionally, the new school of business gives Taylor the opportunity to recruit more business students, Hirschy said.
Competing business programs have caps on the number of students admitted to business programs. Taylor’s school of business will prioritize quality of education and students, rather than the quantity of admitted students. The application process for the school of business will ensure quality of the students enrolled, Hirschy said.
“We're really in the business of inviting people in,” Hirschy said. “When we invite students in, we want to know that they are committed and excited about the fact that God's designed them to pursue business as an opportunity to go out and make disciples, which is in essence, what we're all called to do through each and every day of our lives.”
In addition to the new school of business, the M.A. in leadership and Ph.D. in leadership programs have launched this fall semester. New undergraduate programs include entrepreneurship, economic development and construction management, graduate programs in global leadership and a relaunch of the MBA program, Maxwell said.
