Dean's Message:

During Academic Year 2010-2011, our faculty, staff, and students have been very active and productive in various fields.

First, in October 2010, after going through a long process and several activities and interviews, we were granted the certification to maintain the accreditation of our business programs by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). AACSB has 1,200 members in 78 countries. There are over 12,000 schools and colleges of business around the world, but only less than 5 percent have earned the accreditation by AACSB. We owe this wonderful achievement to the full support and encouragement from our president, Dr. Gibralter and our Provost, Dr. Simpson as well as the rest of FSU community, the Advisory Board of the College, and our wonderful students who played an active role during the AACSB Team’s visit.

Our MBA program enrollment has grown by approximately 50% in the past two years, and in the past year, our faculty members published a total of 60 articles in refereed journals and made numerous presentations at national and international conferences. Three of our MBA students (Thomas Teets, Matthew Mallozzi, and Peter Letourneau had an Award Winning paper published in the student track of the 2011 Business Research Yearbook of the International Academy of Business Disciplines.

The College of Business has taken important steps towards globalization by encouraging and facilitating our faculty and students’ involvement in teaching and learning in countries outside United States. I am pleased to announce that in the past academic year, nine faculty members and several students from our college had some kind of educational experience in six different countries (Bosnia, China, Ecuador, Germany, India and Japan). Additionally, we signed agreements with La Rochelle Business School in France, Oriental College and Hunan University of Commerce in China, as well as IBSAR and Santhigiri College in India for recruitment and exchange of students and faculty.

Our Advisory Board members have provided us with suggestions to revise the College of Business vision, mission and master goals, participated in business classes, made presentations, and given our students numerous internship opportunities. 

Further, our faculty, students and staff have been very active in the local community. Dr. Evan Offstein has been busy providing the local businesses with professional consulting services. Drs. Shah and Sigerstad will co-present on the topic of Visioning and Strategic Planning as part of the 2011 Regional Leadership series spearheaded by The Greater Cumberland Committee. Dr. Sudhir Singh, Associate Dean of the College of Business, organized the Trident Initiative Annual Conference, which generated enthusiastic participation of professionals and entrepreneurs from the local community. Our students have been involved in management, marketing, and entrepreneurship projects with and for local businesses. We are proud of our relationship with the local community and continue to foster collaborative relationships between the College of Business and the rest of the university, as well as, the surrounding community.

The most recent exciting event for our students has been our partnership with global enterprise application software leader, SAP AG, through the University Alliances program, a global initiative that is currently being embraced by 1,000 member campuses in over 60 countries. This endeavor will provide our participating faculty with the resources necessary to teach technology-driven integrated business processes and strategic thinking in their courses. Students will acquire valuable hands-on experience with state-of-the-art software as applied to their chosen fields, with significantly enhanced opportunities for employment both locally and globally. Courses utilizing SAP software are being piloted as early as fall 2011 by Drs. Richard Johnson, Joanna Shore, and Shakil Rahman.

It has always been our goal to provide students with a supporting and nurturing environment that facilitates their learning and helps them reach their highest potential. I believe that we have been successful in achieving this goal. I am truly proud to be part of such a wonderful college and a member of such a high-quality team of faculty and staff.

Please visit us on our College of Business web site, read our newly designed CoB Newsletter, and learn more about our programs as well as the achievements of our faculty, staff, and students.

                                                                                                    Dean Ahmad Tootoonchi