Greetings from Dean Bruce Walker

Welcome to the redesigned Mizzou Business Online, which coincides with our “new and improved” college website. This semester could not be off to a better start for our college. In fact, in this e-newsletter, we highlight several “first-time-ever” achievements and activities for the MU College of Business:

• Our BS BA and MBA programs have earned national top-50 rankings simultaneously for the first time. Of course, rankings don’t tell the whole story for a business school any more than they do for athletic teams. However, I think having these two programs as well as the college’s 150-hour program in accountancy receive national recognition suggests the high quality of these programs and, more broadly, the MU College of Business. Based on the feedback I’ve received to date, it’s clear that the new rankings of the Crosby MBA Program by Forbes and The Wall Street Journal are a huge point of pride for our alumni and friends.
  
  
• In another “first,” as part of the activities of the Jeffrey E. Smith Institute of Real Estate, we recently held a real estate forum specifically for our students, This type of program typifies our college’s commitment to provide our students with wide-ranging professional-development opportunities.
  
  
• We will inaugurate a combination of videoconferencing and webcasting for a Distinguished Alumni Lecture with Alan “Ace” Greenberg of Bear Stearns in New York. What promises to be an informative and interesting “Q&A with a Wall Street Legend” will be held at 9:30 a.m. (Central Daylight Time) on Friday, October 12. If you’re in or near Columbia, you’re welcome to attend this event in person in the Bush Auditorium in Cornell Hall; otherwise, you can watch the webcast.
  
  
• For the first time ever, a tenured MU faculty member has been deployed for military service in the Middle East. Professor of finance Steve Ferris holds the Rogers Chair of Money, Credit and Banking in our college. In addition, he is a commander in the U.S. Navy Reserve. But now, he is serving our country on active duty in Kuwait. We are all extremely proud of Steve’s dedication and patriotism and, of course, look forward to his return to his family in Columbia and his colleagues in Cornell Hall, hopefully around Thanksgiving this year.

Thank you for your interest in MU’s business school. As always, I welcome your input. My colleagues and I intend to build on our traditions and hopefully have wonderful new “firsts” to share with you in future issues of Mizzou Business Online.

Sincerely,

Bruce Walker
Lansford Professor of Leadership and Dean