Update from Dean
Gail K. Naughton, Ph.D.

As we launch the fall 2004 semester, we have accomplishments to celebrate and several initiatives underway to enhance our programs. As you will read in this edition, the U.S. News & World Report “America’s Best Colleges 2005” rankings were just released and I am happy to report our undergraduate international business degree program moved from 11th place to 7th in the country.

This fall SDSU welcomes an estimated 4,300 first-time freshmen who continue to be among the best-prepared students the university has admitted in its history. We expect this year’s class to have an average GPA of about 3.5 and SAT score of about 1080.

Meanwhile, we are recruiting our own group of stellar students for the new MBA in Sports Business Management, starting in January 2005.

Invitrogen Lecture Series and Fellowship
Students and faculty interested in life sciences and entrepreneurship will benefit from a new lecture series and fellowship funded by Invitrogen Corporation. The Invitrogen Distinguished Lecture Series will bring national caliber speakers to SDSU who use novel approaches to solve problems in life science and business.

Invitrogen’s $150,000 gift over three years will also provide a fellowship to support graduate students, mainly those in our Ph.D./MBA program, which is funded in part by Invitrogen and offered jointly by the College of Business and College of Sciences at SDSU.

Initiatives
This newsletter also acknowledges just a few of our faculty’s many accomplishments as scholars and contributors to our community. In fact, most of our initiatives this year focus on endowments to attract and retain faculty members so critical to our success.

Real Estate Endowment
As the San Diego real estate sector and the demand for students with a Real Estate major continues to grow rapidly, a group of leading real estate professionals and alumni has joined with the College to help determine the direction of our real estate degree program.

Led by Christopher Lee, '70, President and CEO of CEL & Associates, this group has developed a business plan to guide the program's development over the next five years. The plan's vision is to "Create a ready-day-one educational program for students who aspire to become future leaders and professionals within the real estate industry." The program envisioned in the business plan will be differentiated by an undergraduate curriculum that includes advanced experiential and multi-disciplinary learning opportunities created through linkages with the industry and the many related disciplines available at SDSU. It will also be distinguished by its accessibility and research center, both of which will contribute to the industry and greater community.

Strategies to achieve this vision include hiring top faculty to replace those who are retiring, restructuring the curriculum, increasing alumni involvement, expanding ties to the real estate community, and strengthening extracurricular activities and financial support for students. In addition, the plan includes an expanded research program that analyzes emerging trends and provides thoughtful leadership on real estate matters of community importance. A $4 - $6 million endowment will be created to support for these strategies.

School of Accountancy Endowment
For several decades the SDSU School of Accountancy has educated thousands of professionals whose success has made it one of the most highly regarded programs in the country. As many of our senior faculty members retire, we need the financial resources to recruit and retain qualified professors in a very competitive hiring environment.

Brent Wilkes, ’77 accounting, president and CEO of ADCS, Inc., recently hosted a group of alumni to raise awareness about this effort.

Financial Planning/Financial Services Endowment
Richard Rojeck, ’86 finance, regional CEO of Sagemark Consulting, will lead the effort to raise funds for an endowed professorship of financial planning. In addition to our bachelor’s degree in Financial Services and the MSBA concentration in Financial and Tax Planning, we offer an Executive Financial Planner program held downtown for the convenience of working professionals.

The six-course certificate program is considered to be one of the strongest in the country and leads to certification by the CFP (Certified Financial Planner) Board, according to Professor Tom Warschauer.

An advisory committee made up of industry professionals helps guide the program.

Hal Brown Scholarship Fund
The 222 graduates of our Community Economic Development (CED) certificate program hosted an event in June to honor Hal Brown, the program’s founder and director, who is retiring. The group has established the Hal Brown CED Scholarship Fund to help students learn how to improve communities and neighborhoods through business development.

For more information about how you can help with these initiatives, please contact us at business@mail.sdsu.edu; 619-594-5259.