“Cindy and I share a passion for innovation and the importance of design. The idea that space dedicated to fostering innovation, design and creativity was being built into the first floor of Kellogg’s Global Hub was something we wanted to celebrate and support. This type of thinking will be critical to business success in the 21st century.”
Retired Chairman & CEO of Motorola Inc.,
Chris Galvin ’73 ’77
The Global Hub is also brilliant in function, with flexible and diverse spaces that enhance the collaboration, creativity and team-based learning for which Kellogg is known. Kellogg has always believed in the value of face-to-face education for discourse and the exploration of ideas. “The magic of Kellogg is what happens when people participate in discussion and dialogue, whether between faculty and students, staff and students or among the students,” said Kellogg’s Chief Innovation Officer, Betsy Ziegler. “Our deeply interactive and relational model is one of the distinguishing features of Kellogg’s business education.”
To be prepared for the future of teaching and learning in 2050 and beyond, the Global Hub needed flexibility in classroom design and usage. The traditional tiered setting, which works well for lectures, is not as conducive to small group discussions and new forms of collaborative learning. For those, a flat classroom format that allows tables to be arranged in different configurations works best. In the Global Hub, form follows function with flexible classrooms that can be converted from tiered to flat, depending upon instructional needs. Some rooms also can be subdivided into smaller spaces, or enlarged by removing walls between them. This flexibility not only serves Kellogg’s needs today, but also provides for greater adaptability in the future.
Advanced technology is embedded throughout. Classrooms are equipped with the latest audiovisual capabilities and new learning technologies, such as lecture capture to record instruction and discussion and telepresence. Students at Kellogg’s Chicago and Miami campuses can “beam in” to participate in a classroom discussion. Telepresence also facilitates guest lectures and other live and interactive opportunities to enrich learning that are both social and synchronous.
The Global Hub has space for hands-on and experiential learning, such as the 7,800-square-foot Galvin Family Design Wing and Conference Center dedicated to catalyzing idea generation and provoking innovation.
The Galvin Wing includes four design studios, two of which have been named by The Kohler Company and one by the DeNaut Family.
For example, the Technology Play Room has screens for drawing on walls and a virtual reality experience to help students use visual technologies to expand their thinking and ideation processes. The wing’s Artist’s Studio and artist-in- residence program will welcome musicians, painters, composers and others to work on-site where students can watch the creative process in action; and the Company-in-Residence Office will host business leaders and entrepreneurs on-site for several days at a time to meet with students while they are actively managing their teams and making real-time business decisions. The Levy Entrepreneurship Studio provides a creative workspace where student entrepreneurs will discover, test and launch new ideas.
“Carol (Levy ’64) and I have been supporting Kellogg for years through the Levy Institute for Entrepreneurship. It was important to us that entrepreneurship be incorporated into and inspired by the design of the new building, and it is. We couldn’t be more thrilled,” said Larry Levy ’66, ’67, co-founder of Levy Restaurants.
Across all venues, the unique features of the Global Hub will infuse new meaning in Kellogg’s long-standing belief that, as Ziegler said, “Business education is not one-size-fits-all. Kellogg is at its best when it is pushing the boundaries of business education.”
