School has long history of excellence

IU first began to offer its business curriculum in 1902, when classes were offered under the economics degree with a concentration in commerce and finance. \nOne-hundred years later, what began as a couple commerce courses is now one of the country's premier and most successful business schools. With alumni like U.S. senator Evan Bayh and NBA franchise owner Mark Cuban, the business school is continuously recognized in national business publications and college rankings. However, it took a lot of innovation and evolution for the school and its programs to reach the prestigious stature it holds today.\nIU established what would become the business school in 1920. Programs mainly consisted of finance, accounting and commerce, and most of the faculty were actually professors in the economics department. \nJoseph M. Waldman, a professor at the school and the author of a new book about the history of business education at IU, said the first actual evolvement came in 1950.\n"The school did some research and found that classes needed to be less description and memorization and more into the behavioral aspects and quantitative skills of business along with case methods," he said. "This was a huge shift in business education that continues to be present today."\nJames Wimbush, IU associate dean of the faculties at the business school, has noticed other evolvements.\n"We are a premier business program that continues to be very innovative," he said. "Ten years ago we introduced integrated core classes, and five years ago we introduced focus academics that focused on a particular industry of business. And the students coming out of it know more than students from other schools going into their industries."\nToday, the school has approximately 4,600 full-time students receiving their undergraduate, masters and doctoral degrees. It is the strength of all three of these programs that separates IU's business school from the others around the country, said Bradley Wheeler, the IU associate dean of teaching and learning technologies.\n"Very, very, few schools have highly recognized undergraduate, masters and doctoral programs," he said. "Usually, other schools are good only at one."\nWheeler formerly taught at the University of Maryland. In retrospect, Wheeler said he realizes how great the business school is here.\n"There is a very collegial environment here," he said. "At Maryland and at a lot of other schools, it is a challenge to cross department lines, while here everyone works together and it is very easy to work with and cross those lines between departments."\nThe business school is named the Kelley School of Business because of a $23 million contribution to the business scholarship program in 1997 by philanthropist E.W. Kelley, a 1939 graduate of the school. \nOther programs that have been innovative and a major factor in the success of the school have been the executive programs, business information technology being turned into a major and online M.B.A. and masters degrees offered through a program called Kelley Direct. \nThe executive programs, which the school has been a leader in for over 40 years, bring companies and students together in the education process. This program and many others in the graduate department will be improved by the new $34 million Graduate and Executive Education Center being dedicated tomorrow.\nWheeler said the future of the Kelley School of Business looks promising. \n"There's no doubt, in the future, the courses will have increased technology," he said. "There will also be more interdisciplinary programs, relating different fields and allowing students to be educated across different programs." \nThe business curriculum, now having been taught for 100 years, is one of the oldest in the country. \nWheeler said the Kelley School effectively prepares its graduates for the real world.\n"When our graduates are going out into the world and going head-to-head against graduates of Ivy League schools and other top programs, they usually tend to succeed," he said.