Carthage begins work on Clausen Center
Complex will be devoted to international business
By Charles Rathmann, of SBT
Demolition work has begun to turn 25,000 square feet of space in Carthage College’s Straz Center into a new complex devoted to international business.
John Camosy, chief operating officer of Kenosha-based Camosy Construction, said asbestos removal and demolition was scheduled to begin in the second week of June.
Construction of the new classrooms, offices and conference space for the A.W. Clausen Center for World Business is scheduled to be completed by June 2004 and ready for the fall semester that year.
Camosy is the construction manager for the project and plans to let bids in August.
Space in the building was freed up by completion of a $40 million athletic center and library at Carthage in Kenosha.
According to Camosy, three stories of space in the Straz Center will in essence be turned into two stories with a mezzanine level.
The project is being designed by Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle, Ltd., of Minneapolis.
"The center will be comprised of conference space and faculty offices for social science faculty primarily," said Arthur Cyr, the center’s director and Clausen distinguished professor. "Carthage will greatly expand and coordinate existing strength for education and analysis on business development. We will be giving a lot of attention to the global impact on Wisconsin and the surrounding region."
Cyr will bring substantial business and international relations experience to the center, having served previously as the president of the World Trade Center Chicago Association and as vice president of the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations.
Cyr has been a member of the faculty and international studies staff at UCLA and a staff member of the Ford Foundation in the International and Education Divisions.
He has authored four books on international relations and British politics and serves on the boards of the Japan-America Society of Chicago, the Driehaus Center for International Business at DePaul University, the Center for International Business Education and Research at the University of Illinois, the Chicago Area Fulbright Program and the editorial board of Orbis.
"There are very few businesses now that can survive without a global perspective," Carthage spokesman Robert Rosen said. "We will have an executive-in-residence program that brings people here for a week or a semester — and this could be a corporate CEO."
The center is named for Carthage alumnus Tom Clausen, whose international banking and public service career took him to almost 120 nations. After graduating from Carthage in 1944, Clausen earned a law degree from the University of Minnesota.
Clausen entered Bank of America’s executive training program in 1949 and, in 1970, was elected president and chief executive officer of BankAmerica Corp. He led the bank through dramatic growth from 1970 through 1981, then served during the Reagan administration as president of the World Bank.
In 1986, he returned to BankAmerica as chairman and chief executive officer, retiring in 1990.
June 13, 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee
