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RIT marks expansion of Saunders College of Business

Rendering of the expanded Max Lowenthal Hall at the Saunders College of Business at RIT. Construction starts in the spring of 2022.
LaBella Associates
Rendering of the expanded Max Lowenthal Hall at the Saunders College of Business at RIT. Construction starts in the spring of 2022.

Rochester Institute of Technology on Tuesday marked the upcoming expansion and renovation of its Saunders College of Business.

Officials held a ceremony to celebrate the expansion of Max Lowenthal Hall.

It’s a $19 million project, which officials say was made possible through significant donations.

Jacqueline Mozrall is the Dean of the business school at RIT. She said the new space will help encourage business students to work across different disciplines.

“And so you can have students from the business school working with computing majors and engineers and designers…to be able to have student team rooms where students can work on their interdisciplinary projects, their entrepreneurial projects, those student team rooms will really enhance those interdisciplinary collaborations,” Mozrall said.

The expansion will nearly double the size of RIT’s business college, and it includes labs for applied research, an event space, and the renovation of existing classrooms.

Mozrall said that event space helps RIT, “to continue to enhance our community engagement with the Rochester business community, as well as beyond, nationally; bringing in national speakers, distinguished speakers, holding regional and national conferences.”

RIT President David Munson said that the expansion, "will more deeply enrich the learning environment in a new era of business education that calls for interdisciplinary collaboration and increased reliance on information technology.”  

The project comes at a time when RIT officials say they are seeing a boost in enrollment at the business college. They said that the fall semester this year saw a record number of first year undergraduate students and record enrollment for the executive MBA program.

Construction on the project begins next spring and is expected to be completed in time for the start of the fall class of 2023.

Randy Gorbman is WXXI's director of news and public affairs. Randy manages the day-to-day operations of WXXI News on radio, television, and online.