January 13, 2015
School of Business to have a home, thanks to Arthur ’63 and Patricia Ryan
The Providence College School of Business will have a state-of-the-art home thanks to a $5 million gift from Arthur F. Ryan ’63 & ’90Hon. and his wife, Patricia.
Their donation will be used to create the Arthur and Patricia Ryan Center for Business Studies in Dore Hall, a former residence hall. The building will be expanded, renovated, and surrounded by a glass atrium that will be a meeting and study hub on the East Campus for students and faculty. The design, by Symmes Maini & McKee Associates of Cambridge, Mass., includes a glass atrium entrance, classrooms, conference rooms, computer labs, collaboration rooms, interview suites, and a student café, among other features. The building will encompass 64,000 square feet over four floors.
Groundbreaking for the renovation and expansion will occur once the $10 million fundraising threshold has been reached, said Gregory T. Waldron, senior vice president for institutional advancement. He said that is likely to occur in the fall of 2015.
The Ryans’ gift comes as the School of Business, established in 2007, draws increased national attention. In 2012, it joined the ranks of elite business schools in the world with its accreditation by AACSB International, The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. Last year, it soared to 75th in Bloomberg Businessweek’s rankings of the nation’s top undergraduate business programs — a jump of 34 places, the largest of any school, based on employer survey responses.
“Our alumni are incredibly excited about the momentum we’ve been enjoying,” said Dean Sylvia Maxfield. “This new facility will ensure continued excellence and growing national prominence for the School of Business.”
The school offers undergraduate programs in accountancy, finance, marketing, and management, and a graduate MBA Program. About one-third of PC undergraduates major in business. Liberal arts is an essential part of the business curriculum, with business professors, including Maxfield, teaching in the College’s signature Development of Western Civilization Program.
Ryan said the integration of liberal arts in the business curriculum is “a winning game plan.”
“I’ve always been a believer in interdisciplinary teaching,” said Ryan. “Combining philosophy, history, and religion brings a perspective you don’t get by only looking at them individually. The ability to take different aspects of what goes on in life from different disciplines and bring them together provides the skill that I call critical thinking.
“Most success comes from the marriage of more than one discipline. Things are created because people go outside the discipline and bring in a different thought process.”
Ryan, a mathematics major at PC, is the retired chairman and chief executive officer of Prudential Financial, Inc., and was president of Chase Manhattan Bank. The Ryans pledged $1 million for construction of the Smith Center for the Arts, which opened in 2004 and where the Ryan Concert Hall is named for them. Earlier, they established the Arthur F. Ryan Family Scholarship Fund. Ryan also served on the PC Board of Trustees from 1995-2011.
“Arthur Ryan is one of the most successful businessmen who ever came out of PC,” said College President Rev. Brian J. Shanley, O.P. ’80. “He learned that business is not just about making money, but also about giving back to the community. Art and Pat have been benefactors to countless projects, and it really was important to have this named in their honor so that people will remember them.
“If you’re a student going to the Ryan Center every day, you’re going to know who Mr. Ryan is,” said Father Shanley. “We’re saying, in a subtle way, aspire high. You can become one of the top business people in the country.”
Learn more about the Ryans’ gift and the PCSB building renovation plan: providence.edu/pcsb-ryan.
