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The College of Business Administration is honoring 50 years of excellence in business teaching and learning through a daylong celebration today, Oct. 29.
The day will include two major events — a breakfast buffet and the 11th Annual Goodyear Executive Leadership Forum. The keynote speaker for both events will be J.D. Power III, chairman of the board of J.D. Power and Associates.
The breakfast event, sponsored by Malone Advertising, will begin at 7:15 a.m. in the Student Union, Ballroom. Power’s morning speech is titled “Assessing Student Satisfaction.”
The Institute for Global Business, in conjunction with The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, will host the Goodyear Executive Leadership Forum at 1:15 p.m. in the Goodyear Polymer Center, Goodyear Auditorium. “The Information Revolution and the Changing Consumer” is the subject for Power’s afternoon address.
For more than four decades, Power has been a pioneer in customer satisfaction work. He was the founder, and has spent more than 35 years as chief executive, of what has become one of the most prestigious marketing information firms in the world — J.D. Power and Associates. The firm numbers among its clients virtually every automotive manufacturer and importer serving the American market, and clients in many other industries around the world. Based in Westlake Village, Calif., the firm has offices in Orange, Calif.; Mesa, Ariz.; Troy, Mich.; and Norwalk, Conn., along with international offices in Toronto, London, Tokyo, Singapore and Sydney.
The College of Business Administration was established as a separate college of The University of Akron on Sept. 1, 1953, in response to the growing demand for business degree programs in the post-war era. With its initial 157 students and a staff of 14 full-time and 19 part-time faculty, the CBA offered undergraduate majors in accounting, general business, industrial management and secretarial science. The fledgling college was led by Dr. Warren W. Leigh.
Today, the College of Business Administration has 3,000 undergraduate students, 460 graduate students, 69 full-time faculty, 37 part-time faculty and more than 20 support staff members.
At the undergraduate level, the college offers seven baccalaureate degrees. Students can choose from among 15 majors and 16 minors. There are four degree programs at the graduate level — the Master of Business Administration (MBA), Master of Science in Management (MSM), Master of Science in Accountancy (MSA) and Master of Taxation (MTax). There are 14 MBA concentrations, two MSM options and two MSA options.
The four-story, 81,000-square-foot College of Business Administration Building was completed in 1991, largely through support from CBA alumni and the business community. The building is equipped with 23 classrooms, the Henrietta and Milton Kushkin Computer Laboratory, the Fisher Sales Laboratory, a student organization suite, conference rooms and more than 150 faculty and staff offices.
Along with the enhancement of the college’s physical facilities, the 1990s saw major initiatives in its academic programs.
In 1993, through a $500,000 gift from Ronald and Diane Fisher, the Fisher Institute for Professional Selling was established to enhance the image of the sales profession, promote selling as a lifelong career, and provide high-quality instruction to students and executives. The William T. and Rita Fitzgerald Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies was established in 1995 with a $2.5 million gift from the Fitzgeralds. The institute promotes the principles and practices of the free enterprise system and encourages the “entrepreneurial spirit.” It is the only institute dedicated to entrepreneurial studies in Northeast Ohio.
The college’s programs were further enhanced in 1996 with the creation of the Institute for Global Business through $2 million in funding from the Ohio Legislature. The mission of the institute is to advance the understanding of global business practices and assist in the development of the global business practitioner.
In 2001, the college received a $5 million pledge from James and Gail McCready to support the institute. This was the single largest gift from an alumnus in the history of the college and the University. With this gift as the foundation, the CBA is conducting a fund-raising campaign for the construction of a new CBA facility. The proposed building will house the Institute for Global Business and the college’s other institutes as well as executive training facilities, classrooms, student study areas and a global resource information center.
The college’s focus continues to be on student learning, service and success, according to James Barnett, interim dean.
“From its humble beginnings in 1921 as a small department within the College of Engineering and Commerce to its status today as a fully accredited business school, the College of Business Administration’s continued success has been the result of innovative thinking, careful planning and hard work on the part of its administrators, faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends,” Barnett says. “Over the past five decades, the college has established a remarkable tradition of excellence in teaching, research and public service.”
Fred Bidwell, president of Malone Advertising, notes that, “We are proud to help celebrate The University of Akron’s College of Business Administration’s first 50 years as we celebrate our first 60 years in business.
“During the morning program it will be a pleasure to recognize recipients of the Harry Stitzlein Scholarship, which we initiated in honor of our former chairman — an alumnus and loyal supporter of the University for more than five decades,” adds Bidwell.
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