The Citadel’s business school moves into Bastin Hall, the campus’s first new academic building in three decades

The Citadel’s Tommy and Victoria Baker School of Business has a new home. Classes began Monday in Bastin Hall, the college’s first academic building constructed in three decades, The Citadel announced Wednesday.

The business school’s faculty moved into the roughly 44,000-square-foot building this month from Bond Hall, where the school had been for many years, according to the college. Close to 600 cadets major in business, and about 375 Citadel Graduate College students are pursuing an MBA or undergraduate degrees through the school.

Bastin Hall sits on Hagood Avenue and links the main campus to the football stadium. It includes a financial trading lab, an entrepreneurship and innovation lab, a professional selling lab, a financial services center and a student success suite, the college said.

A gift of more than $6 million from Rick Bastin, a member of The Citadel’s Class of 1965, and his wife, Mary Lee, through The Citadel Foundation made the building possible, according to the college. More than 50 other individuals, families, businesses and Citadel classes also gave.

“State-of-the-art spaces such as the Financial Trading Lab and the Entrepreneur Lab will help the college recruit and retain a faculty of leading scholars and business professionals,” Rick Bastin said in a statement.

The Bastins and other officials broke ground in October 2017, The Citadel reported then.

“In addition to a state-of-the-art finance lab, we also have a remarkable sales training lab in the building for our new Marketing and Business Development majors,” said Michael R. Weeks, dean of the business school.

Liollio Architecture designed the building, and Greenville-based THS Constructors was the general contractor, according to the college. THS founder and chairman Howard Suitt is a 1948 Citadel graduate.

“Bastin Hall, thanks to the remarkable generosity of Rick and Mary Lee Bastin, will for generations serve the needs of future entrepreneurs and business leaders who specifically seek out The Citadel as the place to attain a business education,” said The Citadel’s president, retired Marine Gen. Glenn M. Walters.