Davis Business Center celebrates grand opening

Davis Business Center celebrates grand opening

SHREVEPORT - When Parker Davis set foot on the LSU Shreveport campus, what greeted him were two buildings, an auditorium, and a "lot of cotton fields and a lot of mud."

The campus has changed a lot since Davis graduated as a member of the first four-year cohort in 1975.

He came back to campus to celebrate the official opening of the Davis Business Engagement Center, a learning hub complete with a lounge, a rolling stock ticker, and a state-of-the-art classroom that bears his family's name.

The center, which was made possible because of a $500,000 gift from Don and Sallie Davis, is located in a renovated section on the first floor of the College of Business and Education.

"This is more than just four walls, it's a symbol of the significant trajectory of this university," said Laura Perdue, executive director of the LSUS Foundation, which facilitated the gift from the Davis family. "It's a symbol of visionaries like the late Don Davis who made this happen.

"But it's also a symbol of the many students who have graduated from this business school and a symbol of administrators who made challenging and difficult decisions to be where we are today."

Don and Sallie Davis graduated from Byrd High School in Shreveport, which launched his career into engineering and business as he eventually became the president and CEO of Allen Bradley and Rockwell International.

The Davis pair wanted to do something philanthropically for their hometown, and brother Parker Davis visited with then LSUS Chancellor Dr. Larry Clark for ideas.

Clark shared the vision for a center where students, faculty and business leaders could interact on the LSUS campus, further cementing the school's ties to the broader community.

"My brother passed away two months ago, but he would be just ecstatic about this beautiful facility," said Parker Davis, who earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from LSUS and went on to become an airline pilot. "He valued business so much, and he'd be proud of what's happening in this center.

"I wish you'd have gotten a chance to know him, but he's a great example of how concentration, perspiration and intentional hard work pays off."

While Tuesday may have been the official ribbon cutting, students and faculty have been using the space since furniture appeared this past semester. A student tucked in the corner studied throughout the grand opening.

"Students immediately found it, and they've been using this area and the group study room in the back," said Dr. Mary Lois White, the LSUS College of Business Dean. "It's an important space for students to come between classes and for business engagement opportunities like Pilot Pitch later this fall.

"I've gotten to know Parker well throughout this process, and we're so thrilled to be able to bring this vision to fruition."

As people started filing in for the ribbon cutting, Clark was finishing up his business law lecture in the classroom space. He's taught classes in this space for the past two semesters.

The center features a mural of the Shreveport-Bossier skyline complete with the Texas Street Bridge designed by two-time LSUS graduate and current employee Jacqueline Bacud.

The center is just the latest example of how LSUS continues to grow.

"At a time when a lot of universities are struggling, LSUS is growing really fast, said LSUS Chancellor Dr. Robert Smith. "Our business programs lead in that regard by the way they are meeting the critical workforce needs of the community.

"We're graduating a record number of students, the most of any Louisiana university this summer with more than 1,500 graduates, and that means a lot of us and for Louisiana."