A river that flows just south of campus inspired the look of the new College of Business and Library Hall at Texas A&M University-San Antonio, Dr. Cynthia Teniente-Matson, university president, said Sept. 15 at a beam-signing event.
“The Medina River represents the story of resiliency,” Matson said.
Matson and the architect Tony Battle explained how this inspiration helps shape this design from just another building on campus to represent the history and culture of the area.
The new building, which is scheduled to open in fall 2022, is approximately 100,300 square feet shared by the library and the College of Business.
The library will encompass 30,645 square feet dedicated to the library with a little less than 10% of the space for study rooms.
The College of Business will have eight new classrooms, three research/instructional lab suites and 54 new faculty offices.
Much of the event’s theme was how this building is strategically planned to help support the university’s five-year plan of transforming tomorrow together.
The pamphlet distributed at the beam signing showed the strategic vision is not to focus on talent but on extending the opportunity to everyone.
The university will put its resources towards extending higher education to the unreached portion of the population, not just using their resources to compete against other universities on recruiting highly sought after students.
The Vice President of Business Affairs & CFO, Kathy Funk-Baxter, explained how seeing the Torre de Esperanza from the highways helps extend the idea, and therefore the opportunity, of higher education to the surrounding area.
The staff weren’t the only people who felt this way.
Class of 2016 criminology graduate Veronica Fernandez said, “This university has and will continue to be a beacon of light for this community and the future of higher education.”
The event drew about 200 people, from local council members, chair members, staff and students to alumni, Jaguarettes dance team and some of the construction crew.
Matson said the strategic plan would only work if every student, faculty and community member played their part.
Symbolically, they invited everyone to start their part by signing the beam that will be placed within the new building.
After the event concluded, the beam was moved to a more central area where more students had accessibility to sign it themselves.
One student even joked that they should flip the beam over so that his contribution “could be seen by all” since the bottom part of the beam was left blank.
