UPDATE | From the Dean
Photo by Bob Rashid
Your generosity is
tremendously appreciated and is helping to provide the margin of excellence.
The key ingredients of a highly renowned business school are no mystery: excellent faculty, superb students and a high-quality infrastructure. In this issue, we examine how private support is helping to advance the UW-Madison School of Business to even greater international stature.
You’ll find our 2004 Development Report, which outlines our sources and uses of funding. Maybe it’s my background as an economist, but I find these charts useful in assessing where the School of Business is heading and I hope you will, too.
Also in this issue, you’ll find the 2004 Honor Roll, which lists the names of our many generous alumni and other friends who contributed financial support to the School of Business over the past year. As I read this long and impressive list, I am particularly pleased that I recognize so many of the names: you’ve attended our alumni events, spoken to our students or visited Grainger Hall. I hope I will continue to meet and get to know even more of you in the years ahead. If I haven’t had the chance to thank you personally, please know that your generosity is tremendously appreciated and is helping to provide the margin of excellence.
Generous financial support has allowed the School of Business to make great strides in recent years in spite of challenging fiscal conditions. The cost of acquiring high-caliber human resources is high, but outstanding faculty and staff are essential to creating a climate and culture that produces successful business students. Endowed chairs and other faculty support have enabled us to strengthen the faculty over the past three years. With the new full-time Wisconsin MBA, we expect to benefit not just our students, but to shape the future of business education. Private support of our centers of expertise is critical to recruiting the best students and delivering an exceptional program at a personal scale.
We are reaching the final stages of the university’s “Create the Future: The Wisconsin Campaign” and it already has had a major impact on the School of Business.
Our top priorities for the campaign are:
- To provide the margin of excellence needed to deliver superior career preparation to every MBA student.
- To enhance the strengths of our undergraduate program and recruit and retain the very best business faculty.
- To fulfill the potential of our Executive Education programs by raising the quality and relevance of our programs and corporate partners.
- To upgrade our physical facilities in Grainger Hall to enhance the professional culture and provide a welcoming environment for students, alumni and recruiters.
There is still time for you to participate in the campaign. Please know that every gift, no matter the size, is important to us. The percentage of alumni who choose to contribute to the School of Business is an important measure of how we are doing. We view each gift as a vote of confidence in the approach we are taking. A gift envelope can be found in the center of this magazine, or gifts can be made online at www.bus.wisc.edu/alumni/gifts. Thank you for your generous support in the past, and I invite you to continue to be an active partner in creating the future of the School of Business.
Michael M. Knetter
Dean