Dear Alumni and Friends,

One of the very best parts of being dean of our college is traveling around the country to meet alumni and friends. Wherever we go, folks are eager to hear about all of the great things happening at Florida State University and the College of Business. The hard work of everyone – from our faculty and staff to alumni and friends – has made such a dramatic difference in our upward momentum and our growing international acclaim. Our preeminence is growing:

• Rankings – Virtually every program in the college is ranked in the Top 30 of public schools, most are in the Top 25, and many are in the Top 10.

  U.S. News & World Report 2019 Public Rankings

  • Undergraduate Program in Risk Management/Insurance - #5
  • Undergraduate Program in Real Estate - #7
  • Online Master’s in Risk Management and Insurance - #8
  • Online Master’s in Management Information Systems - #8
  • Online MBA for Veterans - #11
  • Online MBA - #16
  • Undergraduate Program in Management - #17
  • Undergraduate Program in Marketing - #20
  • Part-Time MBA - #25
  • Undergraduate Program in Accounting - #26
  • Overall College - #26

  Public Accounting Report’s 37th Annual Professors Survey Among Publics

  • Undergraduate Program in Accounting - #31
  • Master’s in Accounting - #29
  • Doctoral Program in Accounting - #27

• Faculty Recruiting – We’ve hired many amazing new faculty members over the last three years. And, the quality of the faculty candidates that we recruit has increased dramatically. We are clearly a destination school for new faculty candidates who strive for prominent academics and research.

• Scholarly Productivity – Our faculty is on pace to exceed last year’s record. The growing international acclaim of our faculty is one of the key reasons for our rise in the rankings.

• Staff Support – We have amazing staff members across the college! This fact is widely recognized across campus and even by our alumni and friends. The support they provide to our faculty and students is also a major reason for our rise in the rankings.

• Students – FSU set a record again this year on a number of student metrics. For example, we had almost 60,000 applicants for roughly 6,200 slots in the freshman class. A large percentage of those students plan to major in business. Further, our four-year graduation rate has increased to 71.5 percent, the highest in Florida and among the Top 10 nationwide.

• Programs – The recent addition of the master’s program in Business Analytics is going to be a very big deal for the college. Its inaugural cohort graduates May 3. Across our graduate programs, applications remain very strong and increasing. At the undergraduate level, the addition of our Student Professional Development course and program is already paying dividends for the job-placement potential of our students. We are laying the groundwork now for further expansion of these efforts.

• Alumni Engagement – I cannot tell you how many times we have been thanked for “getting the College of Business out of Tallahassee” by hosting professional and alumni events around the country. In this newsletter, you will find a story about our incredibly successful ROI event in Orlando that featured alumnus Jim Seneff. We are absolutely dedicated to increasing our alumni and industry engagement as we expand our reach.

• Fundraising – A good deal of what we can accomplish is based on the generous private support we receive from our alumni and friends. Our development team works incredibly hard, and they are on pace to beat last year’s numbers despite being down one person. Work continues on several transformative gifts that we look forward to announcing in the near future.

• Legacy Hall – Our dream of a new home for the college is closer than ever. We recently moved into the “construction documents phase,” which is the precursor to groundbreaking. Assuming continued success in fundraising and another allocation from the Florida Legislature, we will break ground in the latter part of the fall semester.

Our accomplishments are a direct result of all of us working together to ensure our college’s continuing preeminence. If you are not already engaged in the life of the college, there is no better time than right now! There are many ways to help – we call them the Four T’s:

• Time
  • Mentor a student or a recent graduate
  • Create an internship or job opportunity for a student
  • Attend an alumni event
  • Nominate deserving alumni, faculty and staff members for our award programs
• Talent
  • Speak to students in a class, roundtable or at an event sponsored by one of our 30-plus student organizations
  • Get involved in one of our college’s boards
  • Work with our programs to provide real cases for class instruction

• Treasure
  • Fund a scholarship for a deserving student
  • Fund travel scholarships for students to attend industry conferences
  • Provide financial support to help us recruit and retain the best faculty members
  • Support the construction of Legacy Hall

• Teamwork
  • Introduce us to alumni we may not have met
  • Spread the story of the College of Business to others
  • Advocate on behalf of the university and college to colleagues
  • Bring a fellow Nole to an alumni event

All you need is a passion for Florida State and the College of Business! To get involved or learn more, feel free to contact me, mhartline@business.fsu.edu, or Chelsea Vaughn, our alumni engagement coordinator, at cvaughn@business.fsu.edu.

If you haven’t done so, please take a moment to nominate a worthy alumnus for our Recent Alumni Achievement Award.  Established in 2011, this award honors College of Business alumni who have graduated in the past 10 years and had significant professional and personal achievements.

I hope to see you at one of our upcoming alumni networking events. The tentative list of events through the summer appears below.

Thank you for your continuing support and encouragement. Next month, April 1 to be exact, marks the beginning of my fourth year as dean. Every day I am reminded that I truly have the best job on campus! I am honored and humbled to serve as dean of your college.

Warmly,

Michael D. Hartline, Dean
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Please join us at one of these upcoming events:

• March 4: Charles A. Bruning Distinguished Speaker Series, featuring James “Chef” Barlow (MAR ’95), Tallahassee, Fla.
• March 7: 6^th Annual Women in Leadership Conference, Tallahassee, Fla.
• April 4: Faculty & Staff Banquet, featuring the Charles A. Rovetta Faculty Hall of Fame, Tallahassee, Fla.
• April 25: Orlando Area Accounting Alumni & Friends Reception, Orlando, Fla.
• May 8: COB Alumni & Friends Program & Reception, featuring Eric Rosen (ACG & FIN ’92) and Austin Garrison, New York City, N.Y.
• May 29: Bring A Nole Alumni Networking Reception, Atlanta, Ga.
• June 13: Bring A Nole Alumni Networking Reception, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
• June 20: Bring A Nole Alumni Networking Reception, Tampa, Fla.
• June 21: COB and the Florida Association of Insurance Agents Alumni & Friends Reception, Orlando, Fla.
• July 28: Bring A Nole Alumni Networking Reception, Charlotte, N.C.
• July 31: Alumni & Friends Networking Reception, Jacksonville, Fla.