Haskayne receives $1M gift for student collision space in Mathison Hall

On a day in the not too distant future, business students will crowd around tables, drinking coffee, catching up on assignments, and chatting with friends. They’ll fill the first floor of the new Mathison Hall with the lively energy that comes from a well-loved student space. 

The newest such space on campus is now taking shape. Today the University of Calgary announced it has received a gift of $1 million from CPA Alberta to support the Haskayne Capital Expansion Project and the construction of Mathison Hall. In recognition of this gift, a large undergraduate student space on the first floor of Mathison Hall will be called the CPA Alberta Commons. The gift will be bestowed in instalments over a 10-year period.

One of the busiest areas of the school, the CPA Alberta Commons will be a place to study and gather — a destination for group work, for socializing and for engaging community leaders. It will be a collision space for bold leaders to talk big ideas. The commons area will be surrounded by new technology-enhanced classrooms and will be the place to be in the new and growing home of the Haskayne School of Business.

“CPA Alberta is proud to continue its long legacy of supporting Haskayne School of Business students and accounting education in the province. Innovation and the accounting profession have always gone hand in hand, and as leaders in business, Chartered Professional Accountants are at the forefront of change and helping Alberta businesses prepare for the future. 

“The CPA Alberta Commons is the perfect grounds for fostering and building the leaders of tomorrow, and I look forward to seeing how the ideas that originate in the new space become the future tools and drivers of business and finance,” says CPA Alberta CEO Rachel Miller.

The connection between Haskayne and CPA Alberta runs deep. The accounting concentration is among the most in-demand concentrations in the BComm program. In 2020 alone, 138 Haskayne grads completed the CPA Professional Education Program by successfully passing the profession’s final exam. As well, the school itself bears the name of one of Alberta’s most eminent CPAs, Richard Haskayne, FCPA, FCA. CPA Alberta and the CPA Education Foundation have been champions of the school for decades, and this $1 million gift builds on their previous financial support for enhancing accounting education, and supporting scholarships, faculty and research.

Projected to be complete in late 2022, Mathison Hall is currently under construction next to Scurfield Hall. This second building for the Haskayne School will be a student-centred learning environment with 12 new classrooms for business students. The new building is essential to meeting the growing demand for undergraduate and graduate programs at the school.

“CPA Alberta have been dedicated supporters of our students for decades. Our students will benefit tremendously from this gift, and on their behalf I want to thank CPA Alberta for their timely and generous donation,” said Dean Jim Dewald.

“More than ever, we’ve heard from our students how much they miss in-person activities. They miss their peers, running into profs, and they miss seeing their friends. The personal connections made in university are fundamental to the post-secondary experience, and those important connections will be forged in the new CPA Alberta Commons.”