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An 11 a.m. ribbon-cutting event for the PESI Student Engagement Hub will gather faculty, staff, students and community members to officially open the exciting new collaborative space for use by the Dennis L. Heyde Entrepreneurship Center, Global Business Studies Center and Leadership Center. The academic programs and leadership involved are:

• Department of Management and Leadership Programs: Dr. Kristy Lauver, professor and department chair.
• Dennis L Heyde Entrepreneurship Center: Rebecca Rouse, program manager, and Cole Crider, assistant professor.
• Global Business Studies Center: Dr. Longzhu Dong, associate professor and international business program director.
• Leadership Center: Dr. Scott Lester, professor and director.

The PESI Student Engagement Hub will provide dedicated spaces for students, faculty and community businesses to gather, discuss, brainstorm and partner on projects.

Dr. Lisa Jepsen, dean of the College of Business, says that among the many new opportunities these combined spaces will provide, the most exciting in her mind are the ways in which three separate programs can all be lifted and strengthened together.

“I saw a quote that reminded me of the potential of this new space,” Jepsen says. “It was popular business podcaster Simon Sinek, who said that ‘Community is a group of people who agree to grow together.’ I love that. In this new hub, three distinct academic programs can find new ways to grow, innovate and collaborate, to the benefit of our students and our community. It’s exciting.”

Designed for collaboration, conceived in honoring a colleague

Once it was decided that some reallocation of space on the first floor of Schneider Hall was going to work for this project, careful planning went into how a large area could best be divided up for multiple uses. As Jepsen points out, a variety of room types and sizes will contribute to even further growth of collaboration.

“One thing I find so special about this space is its flexibility. From the pods to the conference room, the Hub and its technology all work to support a diverse range of projects and gatherings,” Jepsen says.

The breakdown of these specific spaces is:

• Two innovation pods, small rooms for three to five people, funded by Gary and Lori Withers, longtime COB and Foundation supporters.
• The collaboration room, suited for up to 15 people in a conference style space, funded by the RCU Foundation.
• The large shared central room, space for up to 25 people, funded by PESI and many donors in a large matching gift effort in the name of Dr. Chuck Tomkovick, late professor emeritus of management and marketing at UW-Eau Claire.

For Dr. Scott Lester, dedicating this new collaborative space to Tomkovick was a perfect way to honor a colleague who did so much to foster collaboration and innovation at UW-Eau Claire.

“We lost Chuck in 2013, and he really would have loved this whole idea,” Lester says. “Chuck was all about bringing people together, a real facilitator of interaction. He also had a way of helping people, not just students, see their own potential.

“Chuck knew how to take advantage of synergy, and I envision this new hub as a place where partnerships and creative synergies will take place. It’s a great way to honor him,” Lester says.

Dr. Nancy Hanson-Rasmussen, associate professor emerita in the College of Business, was one of the donors in the pool of gifts that was matched by PESI. She says she was grateful to have a way to pair with PESI’s longstanding support of business education while honoring Tomkovick.

“Chuck’s legacy of sincerity, humor and his infectious smile changed the lives of many students as well as those of us who were fortunate to have worked with him,” she says. “He was my model for teaching and working with students.”

Exciting visions of the future

Looking ahead to the seemingly endless opportunities the PESI Student Engagement Hub will provide has folks in the College of Business quite enthusiastic.

Dong, for instance, looks forward to that very synergy that Lester mentions, in which the three centers of entrepreneurship, leadership and global business begin a new way of working together.

“Our centers already work together, but it’s largely in parallel. Put them in shared space and the handoffs start to happen naturally,” Dong says.

“An entrepreneur ready to take a venture abroad gets international market expertise without leaving the building. A company wrestling with cross-cultural team issues or leadership development in an overseas operation finds people here who study exactly that. A manufacturer arrives with an export question and leaves having also talked through succession or workforce strategy. None of that requires a new program, just proximity and a reason to be in the same place.”

Lauver expresses the same hope for the department she oversees, that simple proximity will generate new ways of collaborating.

“Community outreach and partnerships have always been going on among these academic programs,” Lauver says. “But just having this space will centralize those separate efforts and will spark new creative options to do so.”

From the perspective of the entrepreneurship center, Rouse is excited to watch the community begin to identify this space as an idea generator, where students and faculty can help them solve business problems through fresh lenses.

“What I like the most, for our students especially, is that work in this space does not need to be tied to a class or a classroom project or credits,” Rouse explains. “It can be a place for free reign in pursuing consulting-type experience. Students can practice all the skills they are learning in classes, in collaborations supported by faculty, but minus some of the pressure of an internship or graded project.”

The PESI Student Engagement Hub, located in Room 113 of Schneider Hall, is open for business, and organizers are looking forward to the community it will create, that “group of people who agree to grow together.”