Plymouth University Invests $40 Million in Business Hub

Harold E. Hyde Hall. (Courtesy of Plymouth University)

Harold E. Hyde Hall— Plymouth State University’s 82,000-square-foot, four-story hub for its business programs—is getting a $40 million makeover. The university is raising $10 million to add to the $30 million already allocated by the University System of NH for the project.

The renovations will address the building’s climate control and ventilation systems that haven’t been updated since 1976 and create spaces for students and businesses to collaborate on problems. “This will include facilities where businesses can come in and set up shop for a given amount of time,” PSU President Donald Birx says. “The goal is to create an applied school of business where we’re actively engaged collaboratively and creating spaces so students can work to solve real business problems.”

The renovations, which began this past summer with demolition work and asbestos abatement on the fourth floor, will take place over approximately 24 months.

PSU Professor Jonathan Dapra says the changes to Hyde Hall’s classrooms align with PSU’s Cluster Learning Model initiative, which focuses on bringing students from various disciplines together to solve issues facing businesses, communities and the world.  “Classrooms will now be what we call learning labs,” Dapra says, explaining the idea of teaching at the university is to prepare students for the “real world.”

“President Birx has done an exceptional job of bringing the vision of clusters, where we have been able to break down the walls and work in interdisciplinary settings academically and with stakeholders throughout the community,” Dapra says, citing a consulting course he teaches in collaboration with the state of NH that brings in a small business every semester for students to assist. “I have a group of 10 or 12 students, and they show up the first day and I treat them like they work for me.” For more information, visit plymouth.edu.