January 2008

Moving Forward

For much of last fall, I traveled with Karen Deville, director of the E. J. Ourso College of Business’ Office of Advancement, to visit with numerous alumni and friends of the college as we move forward with the funding of our new business education complex.

It has been heartwarming to see the successes of these men and women and hear their stories. I have been surprised at how many were former students of mine (the consequence of a long tenure at LSU, I suppose). To be able to reconnect with them has been an unexpected pleasure.

The plans for our college’s new home continue to move forward, and we remain on course. We intend to break ground late this year and begin construction early next year. The college competes on a national level for faculty and students. Our new business education complex will be a fitting home for our programs and people.

From the Flores MBA Program’s No. 7 national ranking in The Wall Street Journal last fall to our undergraduate programs being ranked among the Top 50 at public universities by both BusinessWeek and U.S. News & World Report, the E. J. Ourso College is being mentioned in the same breath as some of the country’s perennial names. Earlier this month, a team of accounting students participated as a finalist in PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Extreme Accounting Competition, marking the fifth year in a row a team from LSU has made it to the finals. Our students competed for the title against students from the University of California-Berkley, Wake Forest University, the University of Illinois, and the University of Texas during this year’s competition, one that began with over 400 teams nationwide.

Numerous examples of students performing well in and out of the classroom exist, but our students are not the only ones showing they can compete. Our alumni are performing similarly well in the business world, and our faculty is continuously recognized for its excellence. Our most recent example is ISDS Professor Rudy Hirschheim being named a fellow by the Association for Information Systems, an honor bestowed upon just 44 individuals in an organization that boasts 4,000 global members.

In addition to the esteem our alumni bring to the college through their exemplary work, they also give back in other ways as well. Last December, the Flores MBA Alumni Association-Louisiana Chapter presented the Flores MBA Program with a check for $17,000 during its annual holiday party. This sort of generosity speaks not only to the quality of the individuals graduating from the college but to their sense of responsibility as well. As the quality of our programs and our students continues to increase, so too does the value of all our graduates’ degrees.

As the E. J. Ourso College pursues national prominence, I ask that you join us for the challenges and successes that lie in store.

 

Sincerely,

William R. Lane , Interim Dean