Business school unification: A message from the Provost

Announcements | May 05, 2014 | Claire Curry

Dear Members of the Fordham Community:

I write to share some exciting news about business education at Fordham. In September 2014, the Gabelli School of Business and the Graduate School of Business Administration will commence a yearlong process of unification under the leadership of Donna Rapaccioli, Ph.D.Dean Rapaccioli will oversee a reorganization that will result in one strong business school the priorities of which are innovation in faculty research and teaching, and, most importantly, student outcomes. A talented administrator and business scholar, she has proven herself as dean of business faculty since 2009 and dean of the undergraduate school since 2007.

The business faculty, Faculty Senate and our Board of Trustees have all voted in support of the unification. Bringing the two schools together offers benefits to students, alumni and the University as a whole. Notably, business graduates who previously belonged to two separate alumni communities, though working side-by-side in the professional world, will come together as one.

Academic enhancements are underway, including a comprehensive revision to the MBA curriculum for the first time in decades, and the creation of a Ph.D. program that will help to attract world-class faculty and promising future scholars. The unification will open the door to greater academic collaboration and alumni interaction between business and other Fordham schools. In doing so, the University will be able to use the interrelationships between business and many other disciplines to add greater depth to teaching and research.

During the year, we will continue to work with a broad representative body of the business school community, including committed alumni volunteers and donors, to help generate the resources needed to elevate the profile of the newly unified school. This effort is being led by Mario J. Gabelli, GSB ’65, who in 2010 gave his name and $25 million to the undergraduate business college—the largest gift in Fordham’s history. We anticipate that alumni and friends of Fordham will follow his lead.

Within the next three years, business education will be much more visible at our Lincoln Center campus. The current Law School building will become the new Manhattan-based home of the business school, housing both the graduate business school and the new undergraduate Bachelor of Science in Global Business program, which has accepted its first class of 50 students to start in August.

Finally, I’d like to thank Father McShane for his leadership and vision in this unification process. We expect great things for this unification headed by Dean Rapaccioli, under whom the undergraduate business school has thrived. The integrated core curriculum she designed for the Gabelli School, a blend of hands-on applied learning in business and a deep grounding in the humanities, has received national attention. I know you join us in wishing her well, and in celebrating this transformation of business education at Fordham.

Sincerely,

Stephen Freedman, Ph.D.
Provost of the University and Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Credit and thanks to WSP USA Group for the image used on the main page of GabelliConnect in association with this post.