The dedication of the student activities areas included a half-court shooting contest in one of the new gymnasiums.   Lewis Kramer (’70), partner and auditor, Ernst & Young LLP (left), and Paul T. Bader, metropolitan New York area managing partner of Ernst & Young LLP, unveiled signage for the new Harry Mancher/Ernst & Young Classroom, named in thanks for a generous multiyear gift from the firm and for the late Harry Mancher (’40).   The Alexander String Quartet and jazz saxophonist Branford Marsalis performed at the opening of the Engelman Recital Hall.   Irwin and Rosalyn Engelman with granddaughter Elana Engelman-Lado.   Stan Ross (’56, LLD [Hon.] ’99) is surrounded by his family for the opening of the permanent facilities for the Accountancy Department.

The opening of our new Vertical Campus in Fall 2001 completes Baruch’s modernization plan and marks an extraordinary moment in the history of the College. At almost 800,000 square feet, the 17-floor structure takes up the block from 24th Street to 25th Street between Lexington and Third Avenues—a section of 25th Street now named “Bernard Baruch Way”—substantially raising Baruch’s visual identity and anchoring it as an institution in the neighboring community. By providing all faculty and staff offices and most of the classroom space for the Zicklin School of Business and the Mildred and George Weissman School of Arts and Sciences, the building integrates at one location—for the first time—Baruch’s two largest academic units. This physical union both supports the undergraduate business curriculum, which requires an arts and sciences foundation for the degree, and creates new opportunities for multidisciplinary classes, programs, and initiatives.
Serving as the hub of the College, the Vertical Campus houses 100 “smart” classrooms and research facilities with advanced technologies, a three-level sports and recreation center, a student activities center, a theatre and recital hall, a 500-seat auditorium, a television studio, a food court, and a bookstore.
To celebrate this significant development in Baruch’s history, the College has been busy this past year dedicating what’s new and rededicating what’s moved into the new, including:

The Zicklin School of Business
The Mildred and George Weissman School of Arts and Sciences
The Engelman Recital Hall
The Field Center for Entrepreneurship and Small Business
The Harry Mancher/Ernst & Young Classroom
The Student Activities areas

Cynthia Whitaker, Baruch professor of history, perhaps summed it up best when she told the New York Times back when the campus first opened its doors that our students are “all trying to fulfill the American Dream. Finally we have a building where they can do it.”

—MG

President Ned Regan (right) chatted with Richard A. Grasso, chairman and CEO, New York Stock Exchange, who was the keynote speaker at the rededication of the Zicklin School of Business.

At a dinner following the rededication of the Field Center, Larry Trachtenbroit was honored as “Entrepreneur of the Year.” Trachtenbroit produced a new coffee called Planet Java and within a year of that launch sold the business to Coca Cola Co. He had earlier associated with Baruch alumni Herb Dallis (’52) and Mort Weinstein (’52) of Dallis Brothers Coffee, which firm he used as the exclusive roaster for Planet Java.

Mildred and George Weissman (’39, LLD [Hon.] ’82), with Acting Dean Dennis Slavin, after cutting the ribbon to rededicate the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences.