GVSU's $40M Seidman Center opens with state-of-the-art learning technology, first trading room

On May 6, the long-anticipated $40 million L. William Seidman Center at Grand Valley State University welcomed its first students to its state-of-the-art facility designed specifically for the needs of the university's business students. The 127,643-square-foot Seidman Center (50 Front St., Grand Rapids) offers the Seidman College of Business students and affiliated departments a fresh new perspective on learning, beginning with an electronic tickertape feed in the lobby that displays current stock trading.

The facility offers students a high-tech trading room with nine Bloomberg Training Terminals for accessing near-real-time stock market action, equipment and opportunities the Seidman College didn't have before. The trading room, named The Gary L. Tilken Financial Markets Center, allows students to practice making trades and to conduct research.

The building also offers a student lounge, a quiet study area, and 15 break-out rooms that accommodate five students for small study groups or projects. The break-out rooms are equipped with file-sharing technology and monitors so students can plug in their laptops and work on a shared project.

Students who miss a class equipped with Classroom Capture technology will be able to view the recorded classroom session on their laptops via a split screen that shows both the instructor and a close up of the smartboard.

"(This building) will keep Grand Valley on the cutting edge of business technology," says John Reifel, Seidman College's interim dean. "It will give us one more thing to help attract students. It's another step that keeps us really ahead of the game."

The Seidman College of Business has over 3,000 students.

Source: John Reifel, Seidman College of Business
Writer: Deborah Johnson Wood, Development News Editor