1989: Inauguration of the new building (the HSG Library)
After a three-year construction period, HSG gradually began to welcome students and staff to its new building in March 1989. Moving the library’s extensive book collection to its new home took merely a week, and the library formally reopened its doors, in the new building, on 17 April 1989. The move brought with it a major improvement to the Library’s services and operations: its IT services were extended, and subject librarians were appointed for the fields of Economics, Business Administration, Law, and Political Science, who were responsible for stocktaking, acquisitions and indexing, as well as advising library users. The new library had become a truly academic library at the heart of the university. The new building, henceforth referred to as the Library building, also boasted a 642-seat state-of-the-art lecture theatre (the Audimax), a 96-seat Senate room, seven classrooms and various offices.
The official inauguration was held on 2 June 1989, HSG's most important celebration day, Dies Academicus. Among the invited guests were numerous academics from Switzerland and abroad, as well as representatives of the federal, cantonal and local governments. The official transfer of custody of the building to the Education Department took place at the end of the address by the former HSG president and cantonal councillor Willi Geiger, who was head of the Building Department. In his speech he outlined the long history of the HSG campus from 1963, when its buildings on the Rosenberg were inaugurated, up to 1989 and the new inauguration. Hans Ulrich Stöckling, Head of the Education Department and member of the cantonal government, emphasised the place that HSG had taken up in the Swiss higher education landscape; President Johannes Anderegg thanked especially the voters, the parliament and the government of the canton of St.Gallen for making the campus extension possible; and Thomas Nett, President of the HSG Student Union, focused on continuity and change in the essence and the tasks of HSG.
To mark the inauguration of the new building, a new HSG logo was created featuring a square and a triangle, with reference to the square and cubic shapes of the older constructions by Förderer/Otto/Zwimpfer and also to the characteristic shape of the translucent glass pyramid that crowns the elegant new steel construction by Gerosa.
In addition to the Dies Academicus, HSG organised a series of further celebratory events in the same month. On 5 June, the school opened an exhibition under the title Zwischen Hausse und Baisse (‘Between Bull Market and Bear Market’) in the government building of St. Gallen. The exhibition featured caricatures spanning five centuries and dealing with the subjects of money and the stock market, mainly originating from the collection of the Wilhelm Busch Museum in Hanover. One day later, a three-day academic conference, entitled ‘Additions …’ and organised by Professor Matthias Haller, began in the new building, drawing much attention beyond the walls of HSG. On the same day, a ceremony took place at which President Johannes Anderegg presented the cantonal council with a commemorative publication, entitled The Canton of St. Gallen and its University, in which HSG expressed its gratitude for the campus extension having been made possible.
HSG organised two open days, on 9 and 17 June 1989, inviting the general public to come and celebrate the newly extended campus with music (performed by the HSG Big Band and the University Orchestra), guided tours through the old and new HSG facilities, information stands and short lec-tures. These open days, organised by students under the direction of Professor Jean-Max Baumer, enjoyed great success; although there are no exact figures for the number of visitors, the fact that no less than 2,500 grilled sausages were sold on just one day speaks for itself.
