Facilities

The A. W. Clausen Center for World Business at Carthage is a first-class learning center with the handsome appearance of a corporate headquarters. Its state-of-the-art technology helps students develop professional presentation skills. The facility prepares students for business leadership in a world that transcends intellectual and political boundaries.

Design

The Center boasts an impressive two-story entrance located off the lobby on the north wing of the David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Natural and Social Sciences. The facility is decorated with warm earth tones — light burgundy and hues of blue, grey and brown. Colorful Lannon stone, bamboo flooring, glass walls, attractive glass panel accents, and interior windows abound. The soothing sound of trickling water rises from a fountain and pool located beneath a stairway to the left of the entranceway.

The breathtaking view from the center atrium spans two stories. The area is appointed with brown leather lounge chairs and blonde coffee tables. Skylights direct natural lighting into the area. Tables and chairs for nearly 40 guests invite visitors to relax and enjoy a beverage or snack from the Starbucks coffee shop situated adjacent to the entrance.

Classroom Space

Consistent with learning facilities across campus, there are no large lecture halls; the Clausen Center emphasizes seminar and group study rooms, along with classrooms designed to encourage group discussion.

Classrooms feature data ports and electrical outlets at student seats; multimedia equipment; indirect lighting; and ceiling-mounted projectors and recessed, electronically operated projection screens. Seminar rooms offer multimedia equipment and round-table seating. A computer classroom offers the same amenities as the traditional classrooms but also includes desktop computers with flat screen monitors and a SMART BoardTM interactive whiteboard. The Clausen Center also houses a computer lab.

Troha Boardroom

The centerpiece of the Clausen Center is the Troha Boardroom. Commanding an upper-level view over the atrium commons, the facility is the domain not of Carthage Trustees, officers, or even faculty members; it is a "business fitness center" for Carthage students.

The Troha Boardroom has all the accoutrements of corporate executive offices and directors' suites, providing opportunities for students to convene in a boardroom setting and understand the role and dynamics that such an entity plays in a business environment. Here, students make presentations and engage in business debates with fellow students and professors. The boardroom also provides a venue to meet with visiting international business leaders. By simulating real-life circumstances, the boardroom experience conditions young students to relax and to concentrate on the tasks at hand when they move into a corporate business environment, or when they run their own companies as young entrepreneurs.

Multimedia equipment includes a 60-inch flat panel, plasma display television and cameras for video conferencing; data, power, and telecommunications inputs on the boardroom table; a hi-fi DVD player/VCR; and a SMART BoardTM interactive whiteboard. A wall that continues the Lannon stone motif is adjacent to a wall made entirely of glass, providing a magnificent view of the center atrium and glimpses of areas on both floors.

Faculty Space

The second-floor loft overlooks the first-floor atrium. Leather lounge furniture invites study and conversation. Faculty offices for the departments of business, economics, and political science are in close proximity, allowing students to stop by for conversations with their professors.