Union celebrates newest academic building: The Ethos Forum

JACKSON, Tenn. — Union University dedicated its newest academic building earlier Friday.

The Ethos Forum Building houses the McAfee School of Business and the computer science and engineering departments. The Ethos Forum has 171 computers, 19 classrooms and labs, 39 offices, and 5 study rooms.

“It’s a $20 million project, 40,204 square feet, and that really only happens by the goodness of God expressed in lots of ways including people who give to Union, so that we can have facilities like this for our students and for the community,” said Dub Oliver, president of Union University.

Each department has dedicated spaces for students to collaborate and excel.

“When you take the tour, you’re going to see a lot of things that you would expect to see, classrooms, labs. Now in here is engineering and computer science, so you’ll see some different kind of classrooms. But the other thing you’re gonna see in here is a lot of collaboration space. There’s a makerspace, there’s an entrepreneurship studio, there’s an innovation lab, and then there’s a lot of common space. The idea is just to get people working together,” said Oliver.

All throughout the building, there are also whiteboards along the walls for students to study and foster ideas.

“One of the things I’m excited about in this building is that it can engage people from the community as well. So, you’ll notice on the 3rd floor, there’s a big conference center space up there, so we imagine that there’ll be lots of events that happen, Jackson events that happen. And again, it’ll be a good way for even people in the community to interact with Union and our students, faculty, and staff,” said Oliver.

The ethos forum building is a part of the university’s 2019 approved campus master plan.

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