Post by kevinkagy on Feb 12, 2008 12:39:38 GMT -5
www.miamiherald.com/business/press_releases/story/416127.html
MIAMI --
Saturday, February 9, 2008, marked a significant milestone in the history of Florida International University's College of Business Administration as it celebrated the opening of its new business building complex at University Park with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house.
"We now have a beautiful, state-of-the-art business building complex that can serve as a home not only for our current students, faculty, and staff, but also for our 25,000+ alumni and friends throughout South Florida and around the world," said Executive Dean Joyce J. Elam. "This facility, which extends our business campus beyond the Ryder Business Building, represents a dream come true, and it would not have been possible without the support of the university, particularly President Modesto A. Maidique, of our faculty, staff, students, and alumni, and of our generous supporters in the business community."
What she noted started as a "dream" and a "drawing on the back of a napkin" in 2005, when the Building for Business Campaign was launched -- the first comprehensive fund-raising campaign the college had ever undertaken, one component of which is its Building Complex Fund, culminated in its grand opening today.
The day's events began with a complimentary breakfast in the building complex's courtyard. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held in front of the Grand Stairway in mid-morning -- a stairway leading to the second floor of Student Hall. The formal program, held in the Ocean Bank Auditorium in Academic Hall and which included introductory remarks by Elam and by Maidique, was followed by a keynote speech from Steve Odland, Chairman and CEO, Office Depot, Inc. Following the program, guests were treated to a lunch, again in the courtyard, and tours of the building complex.
"Our new Business Building Complex is indeed a symbol of how much our College of Business Administration has grown from its early days more than 30 years ago," Maidique said. "It is also a symbol of the perseverance and dedication of our faculty, staff, and community supporters who believed our world-class business school deserved a world-class building."
Maidique noted that Elam has been the "driving force" behind the college's rise to one of the nation's "leading business schools" with an international reputation that continues to escalate in status. "With the same determination that she has demonstrated throughout her years at FIU, Dean Elam tackled this immense and important project to build the business school complex and followed it step by step -- from the pouring of the concrete to the dedication today of this spectacular facility."
The College of Business Administration's Building Complex
The new business building complex consists of three distinct buildings in a diagonal design of interlocking forms at the heart of the University Park campus. The 81,000-square-foot complex nicely complements the climate and unique features of South Florida's landscape.
Spiraling upwards, the buildings rise in gradient fashion from two to three stories, highlighted by a 65-foot main entrance lobby and connected by external walkways and a second-story arcade. Wireless access is available to students and faculty as they move from building to building.
"I believe our new facility captures the spirit of the business school. Its dramatic design, contemporary style, innovative structure, student-friendly spaces, high-tech features, and cosmopolitan ambiance reflect the sense of community, momentum, and entrepreneurial leadership that permeates the college today," Elam said.
In January, 2008, the new business building complex won the "2008 Award of Merit" at the State of Florida's Conference of Facility Planners - the only higher-education facility to win this prestigious recognition. The complex includes:
-- Three-story Commons Hall, which houses the college's administrative offices, an executive board room, Chapman Graduate School program management offices, conference rooms, the Office Depot Student Center, Student Learning Center, Preferred Care Partners, Inc. Student Organization Room, the Kaufman, Rossin & Company and IKON Office Solutions Study Rooms, and a cafe.
-- Student Hall, a two-story building that includes a Special Events Center, offices for Executive and Professional Education and MBA Programs, the Bank of America Career Management Services Center with the Egon Zehnder International, Inc. Conference Room, Graham Family Resource Library, Alumni Circle Recruiters' Lounge, and ten interview rooms.
-- Academic Hall, also two stories, which features the Ocean Bank Auditorium, a two-level, 300-seat auditorium; three 60-seat tiered classroom rooms and three 45-seat collaborative classrooms made possible through gifts from Wachovia Bank, Regions Bank, Morrison, Brown, Argiz & Farra, LLP, and the Assurant Group; and a Capital Markets Lab with 49 workstations having access to a variety of financial databases and software.
Major Donors
Major donors to the Building Complex Fund include:
-- R. Kirk Landon, former president and CEO of American Banker's Insurance (now Assurant Group), hence the Landon Undergraduate School of Business within the College of Business Administration
-- Alvah H. Chapman, Jr. and Betty Chapman, former CEO and chairman, Knight Ridder, Miami, hence the Chapman Graduate School of Business within the College of Business Administration
-- Ocean Bank
-- Office Depot, Inc.
-- Armando Codina and Margarita Codina
-- Bank of America
-- Regions Bank
-- Wachovia Bank, N.A.
-- Assurant Group
-- Morrison, Brown, Argiz & Farra, LLP
-- Preferred Care Partners, Inc.
-- William E. Graham/The Graham Companies
-- IKON Office Solutions, Inc.
-- Kaufman, Rossin & Company, P.A.
-- PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
-- Augusto L. Vidaurreta and Mary J. Cannan
-- KPMG LLP
-- Walgreens Company
-- Egon Zehnder International, Inc.
Florida International University's College of Business Administration, South Florida's leading business school with unique expertise in international business, entrepreneurship, and a range of financial services -- from accounting to banking to real estate -- is the largest of the university's professional schools. It also is known for its innovative, market-driven, and technology-enabled educational programs for both degree- and non-degree-seeking business professionals in South Florida and beyond. Every year, approximately 6,000 students are enrolled in undergraduate business courses in the college's Landon Undergraduate School of Business and more than 1,100 graduate students study in its Chapman Graduate School of Business. Another 1,000 participate annually in one or more of its professional and executive education programs.
The college enjoys a national and global reputation in international business education at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
About the College of Business Administration at Florida International University
-- For the past four years (2005-2008), U.S. News & World Report has included the college in the top fifteen in its rankings of the nation's best undergraduate international business programs, listing in the top ten three times.
-- The same magazine ranked the college's graduate international business programs among the nation's top 25.
-- BusinessWeek has three times ranked the college (2002, 2004, 2006) among the top 68 graduate business schools in the United States (top fifteen percent of all business schools) and in the top 25 among public business schools (number four among one-year international business MBA programs).
-- In 2007 and again in 2008, BusinessWeek ranked our undergraduate program among the top 100 and the third best among state universities in Florida.
-- The college is listed among The Princeton Review's "Best 290 Business Schools," 2008 edition.
-- Since 1998, Hispanic Business has ranked the college among the top 25 business schools for Hispanic MBAs -- most recently in the top ten.
-- For the fourth year in a row (August, 2007), America Economia, (a pan-regional business journal) included the college among its list of the best international business schools for Hispanic-Americans and Latin Americans.
-- The college is among the top international business schools listed in Latin Trade's (October, 2006, and October, 2007) MBA ratings, which examined features like curricular innovation, entrepreneurial focus, diversity of the student body, and more.
-- In 2006 and again in 2007, Fortune Small Business identified the college as offering one of the most innovative entrepreneurship programs in the nation.
-- Financial Times (2006 and 2007) included the college's Executive MBA program in its list of the "Top 85 Executive MBA" programs in the world, making it the highest-ranked Executive MBA program in Florida.
-- Hispanic Trends (September-October, 2006) ranked the college's Executive MBA program number eight in its list of the 25 best Executive MBA programs for Hispanic-Americans.
-- Women 3.0, The Business Magazine for Women has listed the college in its 2008 Top 50 MBA Programs for Entrepreneurship.
The College of Business Administration is among the 15 percent of elite business schools worldwide accredited by the AACSB International -- The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.
To access copies of remarks by Executive Dean Joyce J. Elam, President Modesto A. Maidique, a diagram of the new complex, and a fact sheet about Office Depot, visit business.fiu.edu/Spotlights/building_complex_fund.cfm
For more information about the college, visit business.fiu.edu or e-mail Sally M. Gallion, sally.gallion@business.fiu.edu.
About Florida International University
Florida International University (FIU) was founded in 1965 and is Miami's only public research university. With a student body of more than 38,000, FIU graduates more Hispanics than any other university in the country. Its 21 colleges and schools offer more than 200 bachelors, masters and doctoral programs in fields such as engineering, international relations and law. FIU has been classified by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as a "High Research Activity University." In 2006 FIU was authorized to establish a medical school, which will open in 2009. FIU's College of Law recently received accreditation in the fastest time allowed by the American Bar Association.
MIAMI --
Saturday, February 9, 2008, marked a significant milestone in the history of Florida International University's College of Business Administration as it celebrated the opening of its new business building complex at University Park with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house.
"We now have a beautiful, state-of-the-art business building complex that can serve as a home not only for our current students, faculty, and staff, but also for our 25,000+ alumni and friends throughout South Florida and around the world," said Executive Dean Joyce J. Elam. "This facility, which extends our business campus beyond the Ryder Business Building, represents a dream come true, and it would not have been possible without the support of the university, particularly President Modesto A. Maidique, of our faculty, staff, students, and alumni, and of our generous supporters in the business community."
What she noted started as a "dream" and a "drawing on the back of a napkin" in 2005, when the Building for Business Campaign was launched -- the first comprehensive fund-raising campaign the college had ever undertaken, one component of which is its Building Complex Fund, culminated in its grand opening today.
The day's events began with a complimentary breakfast in the building complex's courtyard. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held in front of the Grand Stairway in mid-morning -- a stairway leading to the second floor of Student Hall. The formal program, held in the Ocean Bank Auditorium in Academic Hall and which included introductory remarks by Elam and by Maidique, was followed by a keynote speech from Steve Odland, Chairman and CEO, Office Depot, Inc. Following the program, guests were treated to a lunch, again in the courtyard, and tours of the building complex.
"Our new Business Building Complex is indeed a symbol of how much our College of Business Administration has grown from its early days more than 30 years ago," Maidique said. "It is also a symbol of the perseverance and dedication of our faculty, staff, and community supporters who believed our world-class business school deserved a world-class building."
Maidique noted that Elam has been the "driving force" behind the college's rise to one of the nation's "leading business schools" with an international reputation that continues to escalate in status. "With the same determination that she has demonstrated throughout her years at FIU, Dean Elam tackled this immense and important project to build the business school complex and followed it step by step -- from the pouring of the concrete to the dedication today of this spectacular facility."
The College of Business Administration's Building Complex
The new business building complex consists of three distinct buildings in a diagonal design of interlocking forms at the heart of the University Park campus. The 81,000-square-foot complex nicely complements the climate and unique features of South Florida's landscape.
Spiraling upwards, the buildings rise in gradient fashion from two to three stories, highlighted by a 65-foot main entrance lobby and connected by external walkways and a second-story arcade. Wireless access is available to students and faculty as they move from building to building.
"I believe our new facility captures the spirit of the business school. Its dramatic design, contemporary style, innovative structure, student-friendly spaces, high-tech features, and cosmopolitan ambiance reflect the sense of community, momentum, and entrepreneurial leadership that permeates the college today," Elam said.
In January, 2008, the new business building complex won the "2008 Award of Merit" at the State of Florida's Conference of Facility Planners - the only higher-education facility to win this prestigious recognition. The complex includes:
-- Three-story Commons Hall, which houses the college's administrative offices, an executive board room, Chapman Graduate School program management offices, conference rooms, the Office Depot Student Center, Student Learning Center, Preferred Care Partners, Inc. Student Organization Room, the Kaufman, Rossin & Company and IKON Office Solutions Study Rooms, and a cafe.
-- Student Hall, a two-story building that includes a Special Events Center, offices for Executive and Professional Education and MBA Programs, the Bank of America Career Management Services Center with the Egon Zehnder International, Inc. Conference Room, Graham Family Resource Library, Alumni Circle Recruiters' Lounge, and ten interview rooms.
-- Academic Hall, also two stories, which features the Ocean Bank Auditorium, a two-level, 300-seat auditorium; three 60-seat tiered classroom rooms and three 45-seat collaborative classrooms made possible through gifts from Wachovia Bank, Regions Bank, Morrison, Brown, Argiz & Farra, LLP, and the Assurant Group; and a Capital Markets Lab with 49 workstations having access to a variety of financial databases and software.
Major Donors
Major donors to the Building Complex Fund include:
-- R. Kirk Landon, former president and CEO of American Banker's Insurance (now Assurant Group), hence the Landon Undergraduate School of Business within the College of Business Administration
-- Alvah H. Chapman, Jr. and Betty Chapman, former CEO and chairman, Knight Ridder, Miami, hence the Chapman Graduate School of Business within the College of Business Administration
-- Ocean Bank
-- Office Depot, Inc.
-- Armando Codina and Margarita Codina
-- Bank of America
-- Regions Bank
-- Wachovia Bank, N.A.
-- Assurant Group
-- Morrison, Brown, Argiz & Farra, LLP
-- Preferred Care Partners, Inc.
-- William E. Graham/The Graham Companies
-- IKON Office Solutions, Inc.
-- Kaufman, Rossin & Company, P.A.
-- PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
-- Augusto L. Vidaurreta and Mary J. Cannan
-- KPMG LLP
-- Walgreens Company
-- Egon Zehnder International, Inc.
Florida International University's College of Business Administration, South Florida's leading business school with unique expertise in international business, entrepreneurship, and a range of financial services -- from accounting to banking to real estate -- is the largest of the university's professional schools. It also is known for its innovative, market-driven, and technology-enabled educational programs for both degree- and non-degree-seeking business professionals in South Florida and beyond. Every year, approximately 6,000 students are enrolled in undergraduate business courses in the college's Landon Undergraduate School of Business and more than 1,100 graduate students study in its Chapman Graduate School of Business. Another 1,000 participate annually in one or more of its professional and executive education programs.
The college enjoys a national and global reputation in international business education at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
About the College of Business Administration at Florida International University
-- For the past four years (2005-2008), U.S. News & World Report has included the college in the top fifteen in its rankings of the nation's best undergraduate international business programs, listing in the top ten three times.
-- The same magazine ranked the college's graduate international business programs among the nation's top 25.
-- BusinessWeek has three times ranked the college (2002, 2004, 2006) among the top 68 graduate business schools in the United States (top fifteen percent of all business schools) and in the top 25 among public business schools (number four among one-year international business MBA programs).
-- In 2007 and again in 2008, BusinessWeek ranked our undergraduate program among the top 100 and the third best among state universities in Florida.
-- The college is listed among The Princeton Review's "Best 290 Business Schools," 2008 edition.
-- Since 1998, Hispanic Business has ranked the college among the top 25 business schools for Hispanic MBAs -- most recently in the top ten.
-- For the fourth year in a row (August, 2007), America Economia, (a pan-regional business journal) included the college among its list of the best international business schools for Hispanic-Americans and Latin Americans.
-- The college is among the top international business schools listed in Latin Trade's (October, 2006, and October, 2007) MBA ratings, which examined features like curricular innovation, entrepreneurial focus, diversity of the student body, and more.
-- In 2006 and again in 2007, Fortune Small Business identified the college as offering one of the most innovative entrepreneurship programs in the nation.
-- Financial Times (2006 and 2007) included the college's Executive MBA program in its list of the "Top 85 Executive MBA" programs in the world, making it the highest-ranked Executive MBA program in Florida.
-- Hispanic Trends (September-October, 2006) ranked the college's Executive MBA program number eight in its list of the 25 best Executive MBA programs for Hispanic-Americans.
-- Women 3.0, The Business Magazine for Women has listed the college in its 2008 Top 50 MBA Programs for Entrepreneurship.
The College of Business Administration is among the 15 percent of elite business schools worldwide accredited by the AACSB International -- The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.
To access copies of remarks by Executive Dean Joyce J. Elam, President Modesto A. Maidique, a diagram of the new complex, and a fact sheet about Office Depot, visit business.fiu.edu/Spotlights/building_complex_fund.cfm
For more information about the college, visit business.fiu.edu or e-mail Sally M. Gallion, sally.gallion@business.fiu.edu.
About Florida International University
Florida International University (FIU) was founded in 1965 and is Miami's only public research university. With a student body of more than 38,000, FIU graduates more Hispanics than any other university in the country. Its 21 colleges and schools offer more than 200 bachelors, masters and doctoral programs in fields such as engineering, international relations and law. FIU has been classified by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as a "High Research Activity University." In 2006 FIU was authorized to establish a medical school, which will open in 2009. FIU's College of Law recently received accreditation in the fastest time allowed by the American Bar Association.
