School prepares for upbeat times
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01:46 PM PDT on Thursday, April 24, 2008
The A. Gary Anderson Graduate School of Management at the University of California, Riverside is on the fast track to growth.
Dean David W. Stewart plans to hire new faculty and add a doctorate program and three master's programs. He intends to increase the business school's enrollment, and reorganize the undergraduate curriculum.
"We'll add eight to 10 faculty members for next fall," Stewart said. "We already have six signed on. We're growing and will need the staff to support the expansion of our MBA program."
New faculty positions will include an endowed chair in finance, an eminent scholar in accounting and a senior professor in supply chain management. Funding for those positions is provided in part by a $3.1 million gift from the A. Gary Anderson Family Foundation received in November.
Stewart competes with other universities and firms for top-tier faculty.
"It's really a challenge hiring faculty," he said. "There's a shortage of business school faculty because there are only 11,000 Ph.Ds produced from all the schools annually and 40% of them go directly into business. So we compete with others for the people that are left. And of that 700, only 350 of them are motivated and qualified to do cutting-edge research. The competition for business faculty is fierce."
A business school faculty member can make $175,000 for a nine-month term. Stewart makes about $370,000 a year.
Stewart plans to increase the school's master's degree enrollment from 125 to 200 students.
The goal is to admit 100 graduate students a year, he said. Applications to the school of business are up 54%. With that increase, Stewart believes the school will achieve that goal.
Stewart plans to add a master's of accounting program by fall 2010 and an executive master's program at the school's Palm Desert campus by fall 2009. He plans to add a part-time master's of business administration program by fall 2010 and a doctorate program.
"We hope to see our first Ph.D. students in fall 2009," Stewart said. "We're moving pretty fast."
Stewart started similar programs at the University of Southern California; where he served 21 years at the Marshall School of Business. He was deputy dean at the school for five years and was also the school's marketing department chair.
He hopes to develop international programs at UC Riverside's Anderson School as well. Stewart plans to partner with international schools and offer joint degree programs.
"We have to be a player globally," Stewart said. "But first we need to get local programs in place."
"The Anderson school has been up and down several times recently," said economist John Husing. "But I was talking to some folks over there recently and it seems that they may be getting their feet on the ground."
The school staggered after Rajiv Banker, dean of the school, quit in January 2005. The graduate business school operated under three interim deans after Banker's departure.
"We need for the business school to be a success," Husing said. "The challenge in the Inland Empire is education; it's the thing that differentiates areas in prosperity. So I'm pleased to hear that things are going well at the school."
Husing hopes that the school will hire faculty to train students to work in supply chain management. The region, and the industry, need educated workers.
"We have blue-collar workers but we don't have white-collar workers," Husing said. "We need the school to be successful."
Stewart's plans include moving the business school's offices to a new building closer to the heart of the campus. The school currently operates at the Citrus Experiment Station building, a Riverside County historical landmark.
"We're running out of space," he said.
Stewart is working with local businesses to place students in jobs. He wants local executives to be guest lecturers.
"We need their help and support not only in donations but also for internship placements, scholarships and for their willingness to come into the classroom to speak," Stewart said. "We need the business community to provide mentorship. We need that help."
UC Riverside is a research school and Stewart plans to hire faculty that will study and create data and materials relevant to the business community, he said. He will gear faculty toward identifying and learning about growth in the region.
"We're poised for enormous growth," Stewart said. "We're squarely on that path of growth. Southern California can only grow one direction and that's here.
This is a great place to experience what it means to be part of a growing economic region."
Enrollment at UC Riverside is set to grow to 25,000 students by 2020 from 17,000 currently. UC Riverside is set to open a four-year medical school.
"By 2012 students will be able to complete all four years of medical school here," Stewart said.
The Anderson School of Management at UC Riverside has the largest undergraduate program in the University of California system with 1,200 majors, 1,400 pre-business students and 300 transfer students.
