Charles D. Close School of Entrepreneurship: Drexel’s $12.5M gift

Drexel University will open a school of entrepreneurship this fall with $12.5 million from the Charles and Barbara Close Foundation, it announced this week. Named the Charles D. Close School of Entrepreneurship, it’ll be one of a handful of standalone entrepreneurship schools in the country, and the only one in the region, according to the press release.

Donna DeCarolis will be the founding dean of Drexel’s Close School of Entrepreneurship.

The school will house the Baiada Institute for Entrepreneurship, Drexel’s business incubator. Drexel is also considering two other programs: a social entrepreneurship center and a center focused on bringing faculty innovations to market.

The Close School, named for a 1936 Drexel graduate in electrical engineering, is another story in how the university is growing and expanding its facilities and programs. Last year, it opened the ExCITe Center, a research lab for arts and science, and the URBN Center, the new home of its Westphal College of Media Arts and Design. The Close School will be Drexel’s 14th school, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the first school opened since 2006.

Though the school will launch some programs this fall, students will not be able to officially enroll in its joint degree programs until Spring 2014, the Inquirer reported.