As early as 2008, students could see a new building on the business campus just east of Wohlers Hall.

Exterior plans for the building were approved at the June 15 meeting of the Board of Trustees.

Plans and fundraising for the building began a little over a year ago, said Avijit Ghosh, dean of the College of Commerce and Business Administration. In the next year, plans for the building’s interior will be completed and approved by the Board of Trustees. The University hopes to break ground in early 2006.

The building has an estimated cost of $60 million, half of which will come from the state and the other half from alumni donations.

According to current plans, it will include mostly classroom space, a 300-seat auditorium, a coffee shop, some offices and conference rooms where students can work on group projects.

Rooms for group projects are especially important due to the focus on group projects in business classes, Ghosh said. The last building added to the business campus was Wohlers Hall, built in the 1950s. Back then, there was less emphasis on group projects, so adequate facilities weren’t built, Ghosh said.

With the new building, business classes will be less spread out over campus and instead concentrated in the new building and in Wohlers Hall.