Beam Topping Ceremony Celebrates Milestone in Crawford Hall Progress

Kent State President Todd Diacon delivers remarks during the beam topping out ceremony for Crawford Hall in June.
Kent State President Todd Diacon delivers remarks during the beam topping out ceremony for Crawford Hall in June.

Kent, OHIO – A beam topping out ceremony held in June celebrated a major milestone in the progress of Crawford Hall, the new home of the Kent State Ambassador Crawford College of Business and Entrepreneurship.

Prior to the topping out ceremony, the beam was signed by the Kent State Board of Trustees, donors, Kent State leadership, members of the college’s National Advisory Board, faculty, staff and others. The event represented a long-standing tradition among iron workers to raise a beam featuring a small evergreen tree and an American flag on opposite ends as iron work nears completion.

The four-story Crawford Hall, slated to open in 2024, will feature modern teaching and research spaces such as active learning classrooms, an entrepreneurship lab, a business analytics lab, behavioral research hub, sales labs, trading lab, global forum, business theatre and a student success center. Crawford Hall will be one of the largest buildings on any Kent State campus to house an academic program and will provide approximately 50% more square footage than the existing structure.

Ambassador Edward F. Crawford provided the largest single gift in Kent State history to complete the capital campaign for Crawford Hall on Kent’s campus and name the Ambassador Crawford College of Business and Entrepreneurship.

Watch drone footage of the beam topping out ceremony.

About Kent State University’s Ambassador Crawford College of Business and Entrepreneurship

Kent State University’s Ambassador Crawford College of Business and Entrepreneurship is among the fewer than 1% of business schools worldwide to obtain dual accreditation in both business and accounting from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). The college offers 11 undergraduate majors, 14 minors, and an undergraduate Professional Sales Certificate; MBA; master’s degrees in accounting, business analytics and economics; four graduate certificates and a Ph.D. program. For more information about Kent State’s Ambassador Crawford College of Business and Entrepreneurship, visit www.kent.edu/crawford.

POSTED: Monday, July 17, 2023 04:38 PM
Updated: Monday, July 17, 2023 04:45 PM