Wharton sticks to bldg. plan

and Edward Sherwin Wharton School Dean Thomas Gerrity's resignation yesterday will not affect construction plans for a new, $120 million classroom building scheduled to break ground next spring, officials said. The University's Board of Trustees has already approved construction on the building, to be located at the site of the old University Bookstore extending on 38th Street from Walnut Street to Locust Walk. Gerrity, who will leave his post next summer to teach in the Management Department, said the building is scheduled to become operational in 2001. The facility will eventually be the main Wharton classroom building for both graduate and undergraduate students. The current Wharton buildings, including Steinberg-Dietrich and Vance halls, will become mainly faculty and administrative space, but will still hold some classrooms. The new building will also contain a large computer laboratory, effectively doubling the number of computers in Wharton-run buildings to more than 300. It is not clear whether school officials would lift the use restrictions on the computers when the increased number of work-stations come online. Currently, only Wharton students and students enrolled in Wharton courses are allowed to use the labs located in the centrally-located Steinberg-Dietrich Hall. Wharton Graduate Dean Bruce Allen explained that the new building is needed -- at least at the graduate level -- largely because of the "new curriculum" which is more group-oriented and requires more space for teams to meet. Vance Hall does not contain adequate meeting space, Allen said. "We were short on facilities," Allen said, adding that Wharton classes often need to use alternative space in other campus buildings. But Allen said another reason for the new building is that most of the other high-ranking graduate business schools have recently constructed new, high-tech facilities.