The Citadel will move forward with the construction of a new business school thanks to a $6 million donation from an alumnus and his wife.

Bastin Hall, named for Rick Bastin, who graduated from The Citadel with a degree in business administration in 1965, and his wife Mary Lee, is the first new academic facility to be built on campus in more than 40 years, according to The Citadel Foundation. The project’s total cost is expected to exceed $20 million.

In August, the State Fiscal Accountability Authority approved $17.5 million in bonds for the project. Construction is scheduled to begin next year. Classes in the new building could begin in spring 2019.

Bastin Hall will be a major upgrade from Bond Hall, where the business school currently shares space with administration and biology students, said Col. Bill Trumbull, dean of the School of Business.

Built in 1922 — the year The Citadel moved from Marion Square to Moultrie Street — Bond Hall is a beautiful building, Trumbull said, with high ceilings and wood floors. But it lacks modern accoutrements.

“We need a facility, a standalone business school building, that absolutely screams, ‘business,’ ” Trumbull said. “We need more modern classrooms that are better suited for today’s teaching styles, better suited for today’s technology. It can be challenging in an old building like this, as lovely as it is.”

More than 600 cadets are enrolled in The Citadel’s program, the college’s most popular major, according to Trumbull.

The new business school will feature nine classrooms, which will relieve professors from scheduling constraints due to limited classroom availably; an “innovation” room equipped with 3-D printing and scanning technology; and a large atrium with a view of the school’s state-of-the-art financial leadership lab, where students can simulate working at a trading desk.

Bastin, a retired Florida car dealer and member of The Citadel Foundation’s Board of Directors, said he was “honored and blessed” to have the ability to help fund the new business school.

“The business school (at Bond Hall) was kind of old and dilapidated where it is, and the new school is all up to date,” Bastin said. “It’s a major improvement from where we have been.”

Source: The Post & Courier