With the university’s College of Business Administration climbing up in its ranking among the nation’s top public business schools, many think the construction of the Glocker Business Administration Building should show greater progress.

Over the last 50 years Glocker has been the home of the College of Business Administration. But during the spring and summer terms of 2005, the building was torn down. Major renovations began shortly after and continue on today with a completion date set for Fall 2008.

Building onto the skeletal face of retro-Glocker, the new building will rise to six floors, all handicap-accessible, with an angled glass roof. It will hold 32 state-of-the-art classrooms, 50 offices, team rooms, presentation rooms, a technology center, an investment center and a global business center.

The newly constructed building will be a vast improvement from its run-down predecessor, which was dedicated to former dean Theodore Glocker in 1952.

Funding for the project was originally requested by the university’s 2004-05 Five-Year Capital Outlay Request. Capital Outlay projects are non-auxiliary facilities for which the state of Tennessee is asked to provide funds to pay for either their construction or renovation. Non-auxiliary facilities are any renovation or construction projects that are either partially or wholly funded by sources external to the university.

In 2004-05, the University of Tennessee system requested $30.4 million in renovation funds, identifying Glocker renovation as the number one priority of its capital outlay projects.

Listing Glocker as a renovation instead of new construction, the university was able to receive more money. This was one of the reasons why the university kept the face of the old Glocker building.

“That is certainly one reason… The college’s administrative offices, technology offices, Undergraduate Program Office and a few other functional labs will be in the rebuilt space. We like to think of it as a major renovation of a portion of Glocker, a new building and an atrium connecting the two,” said Tom Ladd, associate dean of the College of Business Administration.

On April 15, 2004, Gov. Phil Bredesen gave his full support for the project in his funding recommendation for the 2004-05 fiscal year. With the governor’s support and with the Tennessee Higher Education Commission listing Glocker as its number six priority, the budget was approved.

Construction was begun by the Concord, Tenn. company Rouse Construction and is slated to finish by Fall 2008. Ladd said construction may be finished by summer 2008.

“We hope to occupy the building sometime during the Fall Semester of 2008. If all goes as planned, we may occupy it during the late summer of 2008,” Ladd said.

Glocker has been at the university for years and with that comes a long line of history. The university has set up an online blog, http://bus.utk.edu/cba/glocker_stories.htm, which allows people to post key life happenings that took place in Glocker, some dating back to the 1960s.

“My story is simple, sweet and memorable. I met my wonderful husband in a stats class we had together in Glocker. He moved his seat to right next to mine; by the end of the semester we were engaged,” Deborah Daniels of the Class of 2006 wrote.

“I heard about President Kennedy being shot while I was having lunch in the student center. Shortly thereafter, I was in class in the lower level of Glocker. Across the hall was a teletype machine, and when it announced the death of the president, the alarm bell rang continuously. I can still remember that sound as if it happened yesterday,” Karl Sammons of the Class of 1966 wrote.

Glocker’s rich history has engaged most of UT’s students, but there were some who were literally left out.

Layne Price, a graduate in accounting, never stepped foot in the building.

“I came as a transfer student right when the building was torn down. As much as I love the business college — it got me the job I have today — I wish that I could have stepped into its doors while I was still a student,” Price said.

Architecture sketches, computer-generated tours and continuous video surveillance of the construction can be accessed from the business college’s main Web site allowing for all to monitor the construction.