Academics in the Spotlight: School of Business Administration

Under the leadership of Dean Barbara E. Kahn, who came to UM from the Wharton School in 2007, the UM School of Business Administration is pursuing a strategy built upon research excellence, innovative cross-disciplinary academic programs and community engagement. This strategy is part of the School's ambitious vision to achieve global preeminence - to earn a place among the world's very best business schools.

Over the past two years, the School has attracted new faculty from some of the world's leading business schools such as the Wharton School, Harvard University, MIT, and Duke University. This means students have the opportunity to learn from and work with some of the best scholars in their fields. Each semester, undergraduate business students participate in research conducted in the School's new behavioral laboratory to meet a course requirement, for example.

"Participating in lab studies gives students the opportunity to be part of marketing in action and enriches their understanding of the value of research in the formulation of sound marketing strategy," said Michael Tsiros, associate professor of marketing at the School of Business.

The School of Business has also launched a number of new cross-disciplinary programs and made significant curriculum revisions at both the undergraduate and graduate level. The new freshman experience is built upon a "front-loaded" curriculum.

"Traditionally, freshmen and sophomores took very few business courses while they completed their general education requirements in other UM schools and colleges," says Linda Neider, vice dean for undergraduate business programs. "As a result, they did not acquire the more advanced knowledge and skills that employers require until they took more core business courses in their junior and senior years. What we're doing now is front-loading the curriculum."

The new curriculum is business-driven, enabling students to take upper-level courses by their sophomore year. This gives them a solid foundation for their junior and senior years that opens doors to study-abroad programs, internships, and consulting projects.

These early classes include a revolutionary new course, FIRST Step, which in fall 2009 placed nearly 40 teams of freshmen with 14 Miami-area nonprofit organizations for the entire semester. The class is designed around understanding social responsibility and ethics and students truly made a difference for the organizations for which they worked. For example, one team spent the semester with Goodwill Industries of South Florida, creating an integrated marketing plan targeted to a younger crowd using Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, the Web, and e-mail, while another worked with the Epilepsy Foundation of Florida. The students in the first picture made t-shirts and cell phone covers to promote the use of helmets while bike riding and climbing to prevent head trauma that can result in lifelong epileptic seizures.


As part of its commitment to reaching across campus to deliver cross-disciplinary programs, the School has developed a joint MD/MBA program in partnership with the University's Miller School of Medicine, a Bachelor of Architecture/MBA program with the UM School of Architecture, and a Master in Real Estate Development and Urbanism program with School of Architecture and School of Law. The School has also complemented its programs in health care with a new undergraduate minor in health sector policy and its program in real estate with an undergraduate major as well as an MBA concentration in real estate management.

The School of Business has stepped up its community engagement with parent and alumni gatherings held in cities across the globe and by hosting impact conferences to promote the exchange of knowledge. Perhaps the School's most visible role on the community stage in 2009 was organizing and hosting UM's Global Business Forum in January. The Forum brought together some 700 professionals including such industry titans as the legendary Jack Welch and the CEOs of McDonald's Corp., The Coca-Cola Co., and many others. Students had the opportunity to meet these leaders as they worked as volunteers and attended the talks and networking receptions. The next Global Business Forum will be held in January 2011, providing another professional development opportunity for students.

"The Global Business Forum and other initiatives we have undertaken are part of a bold vision here at the School of Business Administration," says Dean Kahn. We are making our products - our research, our academic programs and our outreach initiatives - as good as they can be. We are competing for the best talent - faculty, administration and staff - and we are winning. And we are utilizing our resources - our collaborative capabilities within UM and our location in a gateway city - to build strengths that few business schools can match. Global preeminence is an ambitious goal, but for a school on the move, we believe it's clearly within reach."

For more information on the School of Business Administration, please visit www.bus.miami.edu.