The digital economy. Ethics and integrity. Diversity and inclusion. A global mindset.
Those are the themes the Eli Broad College of Business is currently emphasizing through its labors, with the goal of bringing earned recognition to both individual students and the college as a whole, Dean Sanjay Gupta told alumni and other friends of Broad College at the Fall 2018 All Board meeting on Thursday, Oct. 4.
Eli Broad College of Business Dean Sanjay Gupta addresses friends of the college at the Fall 2018 All Board meeting. Photo by Zach Hall
“We are working hard on each of these themes,” both inside of class and out, Gupta said.
The meeting at the Business College Complex hosted members of a number of advisory and alumni boards for the college and its various schools and programs, and updated them to the path being forged and the progress being made by the college.
Gupta outlined a strategy aimed at finding opportunity in a world growing increasingly interconnected, diverse, and unpredictable by focusing on innovation, entrepreneurship, and experiential learning.
“The vision is all about trying to ensure that the Broad College can be a top-of-mind business school, in that whatever metric you might want to think about, when you think about business schools, the Broad College name ultimately rises to the top,” Gupta said of the college’s strategic path.
The college is already shining in many metrics: its undergraduate program ranks among the top 15 public schools in the United States, according to U.S. News and World Report, which also ranks the Broad College Supply Chain Management undergraduate and master’s programs as top in the nation.
Friends of the Broad College listen to speakers at the Fall 2018 All Board meeting. Photo by Zach Hall
The Broad Full-Time MBA Program ranks among the top 20 nationwide, according to a variety of rankings. The Economist ranks the MBA program first in the country for percentage increase on pre-MBA salaries, and it is in the top five for its job placement rate, according to Bloomberg Businessweek.
Behind those numbers are the students that the college molds into alumni and business leaders.
“What does this Broad graduate look like?” Gupta asked. “These are going to be transformational leaders who are not just in some sense leading but are willing to roll up their sleeves and actually make business happen … that is who Spartans are. That is the way you understand the Michigan State ethos.”
Gupta also emphasized the research being done by faculty that is helping to reinvent how business will be done in the future.
“We are not just a knowledge-disseminating group, but also a knowledge-creating group … that’s an important part of our strategy,” Gupta said.
Faculty have an impressive group of newcomers to mold.
MSU interim President John Engler addresses the audience at the Broad College Fall 2018 All Board meeting. Photo by Zach Hall
“This is the largest number of freshman that we’ve taken in at Michigan State University,” with a final fall count of approximately 8,400 students, Gupta said. “It is also the most diverse” with more than one-quarter being students of color, and “it is also, in some sense, the strongest academically-prepared class,” with a median high school grade point average of almost 3.8.
Interim MSU President John Engler told board members that the university has a compelling story to share with the world, and it must take charge in telling that story.
“I want us to be able to successfully talk more about the things that make Michigan State, Michigan State: what it means to be a Spartan, what are the things we are doing,” Engler said. “Can we tell our story better?”
College alumni have also played a pivotal role in helping the Broad College, its faculty, and its students live up to their potential. Since mid-2011 the college has raised more than $181 million in donations as part of an ongoing capital campaign, far exceeding what Gupta called a “bold goal” of just over $136 million.
“We could have not have gotten here without all of your support,” Gupta said.
That support helped start construction of the campaign’s centerpiece: the $62 million Business Pavilion, a 100,000 square foot, high-tech teaching, advising, study, and collaboration space now under construction next to the Business College Complex and set to open in the Fall of 2019.
More than 1,400 people have contributed to the Pavilion project, including New York City developer Edward J. Minskoff (BA Economics ’62), who last month made a $30 million gift toward its completion. In his honor, the facility will be named the Minskoff Pavilion, Gupta said. A formal naming ceremony is planned for later this month.
