Van Munching Hall’s North Wing Open for Business

This spring the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland welcomes a new addition to its family. Officially opening in January, the North Wing, state-of-the-art addition to Van Munching Hall, is a new home for Smith’s student and staff population. For months the Smith School has watched this new section of the facility rise from the ground, eagerly anticipating its opening. Students and staff are all very excited about the new resources the North Wing brings to Van Munching Hall.

The $21 million addition added about 38,000 feet to Van Munching Hall. The North Wing has two large 80-person classrooms and two 55-person flexible classrooms. Five conference rooms and a dozen team rooms will facilitate the team work that is such an important part of both the undergraduate and MBA curriculum. A large, elegant executive meeting room that can be partitioned in several ways will be used by alumni and recruiters for meetings and events. The doctoral program occupies the third floor. The accounting and information assurance department and the decision and information technologies department have also faculty offices in the new space.

Smith MBAs and undergraduates are most excited about the addition of the conference and team rooms. Group work is a key component of the Smith program, and these new rooms will greatly aid students in the team process. Another group of students that will gain important resources in the North Wing are Smith’s PhD students. The Dr. and Mrs. William A. Longbrake PhD Suite and the Longbrake PhD program director’s office are named for William Longbrake, PhD ’76, vice chair of Washington Mutual, the nation’s sixth largest bank. The Longbrake PhD Suite will house the Smith School’s 100 PhD students, who conduct research and often teach classes in addition to completing the coursework toward their degrees.