Top Business School Launches $600 Million Fundraising Campaign
Credit: Image Courtesy of Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management- Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management launched a $600 million fundraising campaign.
- A focal point of the campaign is a new, state-of-the-art building for its Evanston campus.
- That new building will feature a focus on hybrid learning, school officials said in a press release.
- Northwestern is one of several top business schools undertaking ambitious building projects.
Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management has long been at the forefront of business education — and now, school officials hope to supercharge their efforts with a $600 million fundraising campaign.
Kellogg’s new Full Circle Campaign is based on the “virtuous circle” of the business school, Kellogg Dean Francesca Cornelli said in a press release.
“The teaching and experience that faculty and staff deliver allow us to send out into the world Kellogg leaders who will have an impact and open new frontiers,” Cornelli said.
“These leaders come back as alumni, bringing firsthand knowledge of the business landscape and new perspectives on how it is evolving. Through these insights, our faculty uncover novel research opportunities and create leading-edge programs for all students, and the Full Circle continues.”
The centerpiece of the campaign is a new tech-focused building on its Evanston campus. That facility “will position Kellogg as a trailblazer in hybrid instruction for all our MBA (master of business administration) programs,” as well as for its executive education programs.
The new building won’t just be a classroom space: It’s also set to feature dining spaces, an executive club, and 160 guest rooms.
The fundraising campaign will also help Kellogg stay on the leading edge of business education innovation.
The school was one of the first to debut an MBA degree focused on artificial intelligence (AI), a trend that has since expanded to business schools across the country. School officials say the new building and fundraising effort will bolster research and teaching in high-demand areas.
“The Full Circle Campaign brings together the benefits of faculty interacting with experienced executives and staying on the cutting edge of what’s happening in the real world, whether it’s AI, cybersecurity or other issues,” University Trustee Bon French said in the release.
“Those faculty then bring those insights to their research and students. This feedback loop keeps our faculty at the forefront of what’s latest in the real world.”
Kellogg Global Advisory Board Chair W. James McNerney Jr. said in the release that the campaign “represents a commitment to the next generation of leaders, innovators, and thinkers.”
“Investing in the Full Circle Campaign is more than a critical investment in Kellogg’s future — it’s about directly connecting students, alumni, faculty and all who live in Kellogg’s ecosystem to the specific requirements and challenges that the future will ask of us,” McNerney said.
A Hybrid Learning Center
The new Kellogg building will create “an enhanced learning experience that seamlessly integrates in-person and virtual education to bring together students, alumni, corporate leaders and elite faculty around the world,” according to the release.
The school plans to break ground on the project in early 2025.
Daniel McCrudden, director of facilities administration at Kellogg, told BestColleges that the new facility will aim to make executive education students feel like they’re studying in-person regardless of where they are in the world.
McCrudden said the new building’s classrooms are designed to be “totally immersive,” and will feature liquid crystal display (LCD) screen walls with built-in cameras, so that when a professor addresses a remote student, they will feel like they’re being personally spoken to.
The classrooms will also feature voice-activated cameras that hone in on classroom discussions to give students an immersive experience.
Crafting that immersive experience came through lessons learned from the pandemic, McCrudden said.
“We learned a lot about hybrid learning through the pandemic, and that was a big consideration as we looked at the design and creating of our classrooms,” McCrudden said.
The focus on hybrid instruction comes amid increasing demand for both flexible learning options and in-person opportunities from students.
The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) found in its 2024 Prospective Students Survey that hybrid business students still want in-person learning options.
“This year’s prospective student survey adds to a growing slate of evidence that candidates’ appetite for flexibility is increasing,” Andrew Walker, GMAC’s director of research analysis and communications and the report author, said in a previous press release.
The demand for hybrid learning options was also showcased in CarringtonCrisp’s 2024 Tomorrow’s MBA report, which found a high demand for hybrid learning as prospective business students seek “the best of both worlds,” BestColleges previously reported.
“Our concept is based on connections to nature that promote well-being by incorporating natural materials and organic patterns and textures throughout the interior spaces, combined with cutting-edge dynamic learning and collaboration environments that further the mission and reach of Kellogg,” Hana Kassem, design principal for Kohn Pedersen Fox, said in the Kellogg press release.
Feedback from students played a crucial role in designing the new building, McCrudden said.
Kellogg consulted with a number of students, faculty, alums, and other stakeholders in designing the new building. He said feedback from executive MBA students was key, given how often those students will utilize the new building.
That feedback led to the current, holistic design. The building has a major focus on wellness, including a fitness center and a number of guest rooms that look out onto Lake Michigan. McCrudden said the building is also designed to be highly adaptable to new and emerging technologies.
The new building will feature a number of cutting-edge features, like a round classroom with a Skyfold partition that allows it to be used as either separate 80- and 100-person rooms or a single, 180-person lecture hall.
“What we’re making sure is that the infrastructure we believe we’re going to need is built into the walls of the building,” McCrudden said.
Business Schools Launch Ambitious Building Projects
Northwestern Kellogg isn’t the only major business school undertaking an ambitious building project.
Purdue University’s Daniels School of Business is also building a new facility: A 164,000-square-foot building set to be finished in 2027.
Texas AM University’s Mays Business School received a record $25 million gift earlier this year for the construction of a new graduate education building. That 82,500-square-foot building will help the school boost its graduate enrollment numbers and support the school’s Flex Online hybrid master’s programs.
Supporting hybrid students, as well as featuring facilities for fast-growing fields, is a key component in new business school buildings across higher education.
North Carolina Central University, a historically Black university, opened a new business school facility earlier this year equipped for high-demand fields like AI and cybersecurity.
Many of these new buildings aim to have an impact beyond their respective universities.
Western Kentucky University (WKU) broke ground on a new 113,000-square-foot home for its Gordon Ford College of Business last year. WKU President Timothy C. Caboni said in a press release at the time that the new building will help the school partner with local business leaders and employers.
“Fostering additional partnerships with regional business leaders, this space increases our role in the development of the business community and workforce by offering training and credentialing opportunities and spaces intentionally created to further networking and job placement opportunities for our students,” Caboni said.
Business school expansions aren’t limited to single buildings.
Vanderbilt University is planning a $520 million campus in West Palm Beach, Florida, with a focus on business and AI. The 300,000-square-foot campus, as proposed, would include the university’s Owen Business School, Engineering School, and a planned innovation hub.
The University of Michigan Ross School of Business is likewise planning a new campus in another state. A new space in Los Angeles will help the school expand its L.A.-based programs, Dean Sharon Matusik previously told BestColleges.
Kellogg’s new building and fundraising effort will build on the school’s recent initiatives, including the new Northwestern Medicine Kellogg Healthcare Leadership Center.
That collaboration with Northwestern Medicine was established with a $10 million endowment in September, and university officials want the new center to “become the preeminent place to educate a cadre of leaders in healthcare through leadership training, experiential teaching, research, and innovation,” according to a Kellogg press release.