Bryant Breaks Ground on Historic Campus Expansion Here and in China

Bryant University is taking a bold step forward on Friday when officials break ground on what is being described as the largest and most transformative development project in the school’s history.

“Bryant Builds” is the a new facilities initiative that will add 250,000 square feet of space at both the Smithfield campus and in Zhuhai, China.

“We are enhancing our academic

and athletic facilities to

become best in class.”

There will be a new entrance, landscaping, point of arrival “designed to enhance access to facilities on Bryant’s 435-acre contemporary campus,” a university release stated.

There will also be a new 50,000 square foot Academic Innovation Center where ”where innovative learning will be fostered in a creative environment designed for a new generation of pedagogy in both Bryant’s College of Business and College of Arts and Sciences.” The landmark center will open in the fall of 2016 and was funded in party by alumni donations including a lead $5 million gift from an individual family.

The athletics program will get a major investment that includes a strength and condition center for Bryant’s 22 NCAA Division I teams, a 78,000 square foot indoor practice facility replete with a 100-yard turf field. This will allow the university to boast having the only facility of its kind among all New England private Division I schools.

Support for this project includes a $2 million gift from William J. Conaty ’67, Chair of the Bryant University Board of Trustees.

“With the transformative Bryant Builds plan, we are creating the world-class learning environment that aligns with Bryant’s bold future. We are enhancing our academic and athletic facilities to become best in class, with innovation as a central theme in architecture and pedagogy,” said University President Ronald K. Machtley.

In China, the Chinese Ministry of Education in Beijing has approved a cooperative agreement between Bryant University and Beijing Institute of Technology, Zhuhai, to collaboratively educate students on Bryant’s campus and in Zhuhai, China. Bryant will become the first and only American university with a presence in Zhuhai, the first university to establish a partnership with a private institution in China, and the only U.S.-China joint business program in Guangdong Province on the southeast coast.

Bryant’s decision to establish China as a priority of its international strategy began in 2004. The University is also home to a very successful Confucius Institute that has educated Bryant students and those in the neighboring high schools in both Mandarin language and Chinese culture. More than 300 Bryant students, faculty, and staff have visited China through the Sophomore International Experience since the program was created at Bryant in 2007.

In Zhuhai, education will take place on the Beijing Institute of Technology’s 800-acre campus, home to approximately 25,000 students. The program is intended to mirror Bryant’s curriculum and standards of excellence and will be taught in English, with no more than 100 entering freshmen initially. It is hoped that this program will also encourage numerous Chinese students to study at Bryant.

Bryant has filed a request with its accrediting body NEASC (New England Association of Schools and Colleges). The approval by the Chinese Ministry of Education allows many details of the partnership to be worked out over the coming months. Classes in Zhuhai could begin as early as September of this year.

President Machtley, Bryant Vice President for International Affairs Hong Yang, and other officials from Bryant attended the March 19 groundbreaking ceremony in Zhuhai. The facility being built will house the cooperative program for its first three years. Half of the 107,000-square-foot facility, constructed entirely through funding from Zhuhai partners, will be dedicated to the Bryant program.

A complete press release can be found HERE.

Renderings courtesy EYP Architecture and Engineering