A strong connection to the local business community. An international focus, with a special emphasis on Latin America. Academic programs targeted at a number of different markets, from undergraduates to working professionals. A faculty recognized as among the nation’s leaders in business education.
The statements above describe the Freeman School today, but you may be surprised to learn they also described the school in 1914, when the city’s business leaders came together to establish a new college at Tulane University dedicated to the teaching and practice of business administration.
The year 2014 will mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the A. B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane University. I am pleased to announce that we will be honoring this historic milestone during the 2013–2014 academic year with a host of special events and activities to highlight our past, celebrate our present and preview our very bright future.
To kick off the centennial, this issue of Freeman magazine features an illustrated timeline spotlighting many of the notable events and accomplishments of the last 100 years. You can learn more about the history of the Freeman School by visiting the website we’ve set up, freemancentennial.tulane.edu. You can also find the latest information about upcoming centennial events, including our Alumni Centennial Celebration on May 2, 2014, at the Pavilion of Two Sisters in City Park.
It’s been a busy summer here at the Freeman School. In August, we completed a major renovation of Goldring/Woldenberg Hall I that included new faculty offices and student breakout rooms, an expansion of the Career Management Center, and significant upgrades to classroom technology. The project also included a major renovation of the Turchin Business Library and a new dedicated space for our Financial Analysis Lab, which offers students 24-hour access to the Bloomberg Professional Service. If you haven’t visited Goldring/Woldenberg Hall recently, I encourage you to stop by to see the changes.
This renovation was necessitated in part by our dramatic growth in the last several years. This summer, we welcomed 403 new full-time graduate students to the Freeman School, an all-time high, and more recently we welcomed 318 freshmen. With nearly 2,500 students across all our programs, the Freeman School is near an all-time high in total enrollment, an achievement in which we should all take pride.
In July, we welcomed five new faculty members to the Freeman School (see page 9). These outstanding scholars and educators are the latest additions in what has been an ongoing effort to expand the ranks of our faculty, especially our tenured and tenure-track professors, and we’re not yet done. We hope to hire several additional faculty members in the coming year.
We are also beginning to implement the five-year strategic plan we announced last spring. One of the priorities listed in that plan was the investigation of a possible program in hospitality. I’m delighted to announce that this semester Professor of Practice Ralph Maurer is teaching New Product Development in the Hospitality Industry, our first offering in this new area. We will closely monitor the success of this course and use what we learn to determine whether additional courses or even an MBA concentration in hospitality is warranted.
We rely on you, our alumni and stakeholders, for guidance and support, so in closing I’d like to encourage each of you to become more engaged with the Freeman School in the coming year. If you haven’t already, please read our strategic plan and send us your comments. Visit our centennial website and share your memories of the Freeman School. And if you haven’t visited campus recently, please stop by the business school or make plans to attend one of our upcoming alumni events. We’d love to hear what you think.
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