From the Dean

On October 10, the University of Wisconsin Foundation publicly announced the Create the Future capital campaign. With new strategic priorities, the campaign comes at a critical time for the School of Business. Your philanthropy will help make it happen.

The Create the Future campaign aims to raise at least $1.5 billion for UW-Madison. If history is any guide, the School of Business will play a major role in reaching this goal; we accounted for 10 percent of the last capital campaign, which ran from 1988 to 1993. While percentages and dollar amounts can seem arbitrary, the impacts are not. Although state aid and tuition cover about 65 percent of our full-time program budget, private philanthropy has been a key to our success for many years.

At the School of Business, we aim to transform people's lives through both our educational experiences and our research. To excel requires attracting and retaining outstanding faculty and staff, attracting an extraordinary group of students, delivering educational programs that are focused and personal, and providing an environment that stimulates intellectual curiosity. Philanthropy provides the margin of excellence for us in each of these areas.

Faculty excellence is the foundation of any great school, and we continue to need your support for endowed chairs and other forms of teaching and research support. We are fortunate to have an outstanding faculty now, and it is less costly to maintain a great faculty than to rebuild one.

As we shift toward higher tuition and lower state funding, we also need additional student support. Our goal is to attract exceptional students who will benefit most from our programs, not merely those who can afford the cost. Your support is also needed to help us recruit and support a more diverse student body that will enrich our learning environment and be appealing to our recruiters. (See story on p. 18.)

We are committed to providing exceptional students with educational experiences that transform their lives. Philanthropy helps us move beyond the ordinary classroom experience to one that melds theory with practice in an intimate program. (See story on p. 15 describing our new MBA program.)

A superb example of that philanthropy is a recent gift from Albert “Ab” Nicholas, MBA '55, to endow the Nicholas Center for Applied Corporate Finance. (See story on opposite page.) Ab's generosity will provide our graduate students with a combination of hands-on experience, personal attention and alumni contact that is unmatched anywhere in the world.

Philanthropy also has built Grainger Hall and the Fluno Center. Our aspirations require more space, and campus has approved a building project on the east side of Grainger Hall, which could become the home of our new MBA program and thereby create space in Grainger Hall for more undergraduate program initiatives. (See story on p. 17.)

We must not slow down now. Changes in technology, regulation and geopolitics have created an increasingly complex and dynamic business environment where leadership, values and technical skills are at a premium. It's a world that needs more and better Wisconsin graduates. This issue of Update describes many of the initiatives that we believe are essential to meeting these challenges. Our alumni and friends have enabled us to achieve great outcomes already, not only from significant one-time contributions but also from the many valued annual donations. We look forward to working with you to create more great outcomes for our students in the future.

Michael M. Knetter
Dean