What a Difference a Year Makes

As I wrap up my first year at LSU, I am compelled to provide a “report card” on our progress. First, I cannot fully express my gratitude for the overwhelming support I have received from the faculty, staff, students, alumni, and civic leaders. Clearly, LSU and the E. J. Ourso College of Business are important to Louisiana and the world for that matter. I am truly honored to be your dean, and I do not take for granted the tremendous responsibilities of this role. We have been good stewards and have accomplished a lot with the investments made in our college, and I am mindful of the impact of every decision I make on this world-renowned business school and this great University.

Our research is important academically and managerially, and my colleagues have significantly contributed as thought leaders to both audiences. Our students have won international and national awards, and they have graduated and become captains of industry. Our alumni have given back to the school in many forms—their time, talents, and treasures—so that others could receive a world-class education and go on to represent us in very meaningful ways. And our staff—oh, our wonderfully talented staff—has amazed me daily in their dedication to this University and the superb support they provide us all. Thank you.

To continue on the upward trajectory we have enjoyed, I considered the strengths of this college and the opportunities before us and saw five key areas for growth. The five strategic growth initiatives are as follows:

1. New Business Education Complex
2. PhD Student Stipend Support
3. Globalization
4. Diversity
5. Supply Chain Management

I believe if we do these five things well, in addition to continuing to produce high-quality research and instruction, our business school’s reputation will be enhanced significantly. Therefore, we have dedicated significant resources to these five initiatives. Below is a short summary of our accomplishments in three of the five areas. I will brief you on our diversity and supply chain management initiatives next time.

Business Education Complex
Clearly, we need and will have a new Business Education Complex (BEC). This state-of-the-art complex will enable us to retain and attract top scholars, and it will provide our students with the best learning environment for today’s and tomorrow’s pedagogy. The BEC will have case study rooms, role-play rooms, distance-learning technology, and space for our recruiting companies to interview our students. To date, we have raised $17,800,000 of the $30,000,000 needed in private funds, and since January we have been exploring the use of New Markets Tax Credits (NMTC) as a way of generating approximately $9,500,000 of the $12,200,000 needed to finish this campaign.

PhD Student Stipend Support
Our undergraduate program is ranked in the Top 50 of all public universities nationally, according to BusinessWeek and US News & World Report, and our LSU Flores MBA Program is ranked seventh among recruiters who recruit regionally, according to the Wall Street Journal. Of course, we will continue to strongly support the undergraduate and MBA programs. However, there is a clear need to focus more on our PhD program. In particular, we are actively pursuing ways to increase the stipends that we pay our doctoral students. These students represent the future of higher education. Typically, it takes four years for students to complete our PhD program. Often, the doctoral students learn to be effective professors by teaching our undergraduate students. Also, the doctoral students learn how to conduct and publish research under the tutelage of our professors. Thus, enhancing our doctoral program enables us to recruit the best doctoral students to work with our faculty giving us a double benefit in teaching and research. Thanks to some of our highly supportive donors, in the last six months we have secured funding through professorships for a few of our 75 doctoral students.

For example, in May, I had the privilege of presiding over a luncheon to honor James “Jimmy” Maurin. The event commemorated the establishment of the James E. “Jimmy” Maurin Professorship in Business in the E. J. Ourso College, a professorship established by Jimmy’s business partner and dear friend, Roger Ogden. This professorship will provide support to doctoral students whose area of research is real estate or entrepreneurship. You will soon hear about our “Adopt a PhD Student” program, which will be introduced by the Dean’s Advisory Council’s Marketing and Public Relations Committee led by Jeff Zehnder.

Globalization
Part of our mission is to prepare tomorrow’s business leaders for a global economy. Emerging markets and our desire to see our students at the forefront of industry help shape our curricula development. In the past, our alumni have extended the college’s reach to every corner of the globe. We intend to bring the world to our students to enhance their learning experience, and, without question, our globalization efforts are paying off. In May, the E. J. Ourso College was recognized internationally by Eduniversal as a top business school. In the same month, a group of LSU Flores MBA students visited China to learn from companies how business is conducted there. In June, another group of students visited China to explore opportunities for doing business with China. The trip was partially funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education. To further our emerging markets initiative, I traveled with Agnes Cheng, Ourso Distinguished Chair of Accounting, to Brazil in June to meet with officials at University of Sao Paulo about partnering with our college. I am happy to report that we secured an agreement with them, and we are now encouraging our respective faculty to collaborate. For more information, please visit http://www.fea.usp.br/noticias.php?i=223. We will continue to seek strategic partnerships with schools in emerging markets.

We are already looking ahead to the fall semester and hope that you will be inspired to become more active in your alma mater’s future. Additionally, I ask that you forward this e-newsletter to fellow alumni, and ask them to update their contact information by clicking here. We are always happy to learn the accomplishments of our alumni and to share their news with as many Tigers as possible.

Best wishes,

Eli Jones, Dean and E. J. Ourso Distinguished Professor of Business

E. J. Ourso College of Business
3304 Patrick F. Taylor Hall
Nicholson Extension
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, LA 70803

Tel:    225-578-5297
Fax:  225-578-5256
elijones@lsu.edu