Moore Business Spring 2005
From the dean
This has been a year of historic anniversaries, exciting events, and new initiatives at the Moore School of Business.
First, the anniversaries. As our cover story explains, 85 years ago we opened our doors as the University of South Carolina’s School of Commerce; 60 years ago we began our master’s programs; 45 years ago we launched our MBA program; 30 years ago we started our graduate international business program—then called MIBS, now called IMBA; and 10 years ago we began our graduate international business partnership with the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration.
It has been a busy and productive eight-and-a-half decades.
Second, exciting events. Moore alumni the world over have been throwing parties to celebrate these birthdays; you’ll read more about them inside. The events are an excellent way of networking while also building on the Moore School’s legacy of excellence.
Another stirring event was the successful launch of our Executive International MBA (EIMBA) program last August. We’re pleased about our partnership with one of Mexico’s top universities, Tec de Monterrey, and we’re more than pleased with the caliber of students (senior Mexican managers in their 30s and 40s) that have enrolled in this 22-month, dual-degree program. Even better, the students seem to be happy with our program and our professors. We look forward to welcoming the second EIMBA class this August, when we’ll have two classes enrolled.
Third, new initiatives. After several quiet years when our strapped budget simply did not allow us to do much hiring, we’re interviewing potential new hires and expect to be adding at least eight new faculty members for the fall 2005 semester. This is important, not only because we’re anticipating more than 20 faculty members to retire over the next three years with the TERI early retirement program, but also because we view this as a superb opportunity to make strategic hires in the areas where we need to add extra faculty—areas such as banking and finance, management, and supply chain and process management. We also view this as a perfect opportunity to hire more women and minority faculty, thereby becoming more reflective of the community we serve.
We’re also moving toward distinguishing ourselves beyond just the international arena. The most significant move in this area is supply chain and process management (see the profile of Dr. Manoj Malhotra, inside, for more details). For us as a global international school, supply chain management is an increasingly important field that takes academic learning outside the classroom and applies these principles to industry. The result for industry is usually cost savings and better operations.
Other initiatives that make me proud. Our IMBA Case Team is preparing to compete in French next January at a case team competition in Canada. This will pit us against the best colleges and universities in the world, and will showcase our students’ incredible talents. And, last summer’s program of undergraduates teaching business English in Romania was so successful that the project has attracted private financial support, and a group is returning this summer for Round Two.
More initiatives. At the request of our students, we’re continuing to make small modifications to our IMBA program. The latest change is that our students’ language training will now run right up to their actual internships, so that they will spend a total of about 36 weeks in language immersion classes and then work in that language in the country of their choice. They will, therefore, spend about two-thirds of the year, uninterrupted, not only speaking their foreign language in a training sense, but also using it in the business world.
Finally, we’re working to stay flexible and adaptable to the always-changing environment of a full-service business school. What are the needs of our students, our employers, and our community? We have answered these questions by deciding to alter our previous plans for renovating the Moore School facility. Instead of vacating the building for a full-scale renovation, we now plan to construct a brand-new three- or four-story graduate school on Pendleton Street, immediately adjacent to and connected with our current building.
We hope to begin work on the new facility in the fall of 2006 or the spring of 2007. Once this new graduate facility is completed, we’ll begin a gradual, floor-by-floor facelift of the current building.
We revised our original plans because the cost began to escalate beyond what we thought was reasonable, and because we decided it would be too disruptive to vacate the building and relocate everyone for two or more years while the renovation was proceeding. We’ll still end up, however, with what we set out to have: a state-of-the art graduate facility and a modernized overall teaching facility.
The challenge remains, though, of raising enough money over the next five years to match Darla Moore’s $45 million contribution, plus more, which will lead to top-notch facilities and an endowment of more than $100 million. An endowment of this size will enable us to provide needed financial assistance to both our graduate and undergraduate students, and also to enhance our academic programs.
Please join me in meeting this challenge.
—Joel A. Smith