Collegewide News

Securing their standing among the nation's best, Florida State University's College of Business' undergraduate programs in Insurance and Real Estate once again made the short list of top schools in U.S. News & World Report's "Best Colleges 2023 Guidebook" released today. The Dr. William T. Hold/The National Alliance Program in Risk Management and Insurance ranks No. 3 among all schools, and the real estate program maintained its No. 5 ranking among public schools. The college also earned a No. 20 ranking among public schools in marketing, while accounting moved up three spots to No. 21.

A game-changing $10 million gift to the Florida State University College of Business will establish the Dr. Persis E. Rockwood School of Marketing in honor of the late trailblazing FSU professor emerita and will provide transformational support to marketing students and faculty members in the nationally ranked program.

Barry Diskin built a reputation as a demanding professor who inspired thanks from his students. Bill Hillison demonstrated a marathon work ethic that included a "weird" all-day office schedule. And the late Bob Marshall exuded a magnetism that made him a "wise counselor" to everyone. They became the newest inductees into the Charles A. Rovetta Faculty Hall of Fame during the recent 2022 College of Business Faculty and Staff Awards Dinner and Ceremony at the Turnbull Conference Center.

Florida State University's MBA specialty in real estate retained its Top 10 status, and its Part-time MBA format broke into the Top 30 among public schools nationwide, according to U.S. News & World Report's 2023 list of best on-campus graduate programs released today. Repeating its No. 9 standing among public schools, FSU's MBA specialty in real estate also improved one spot to No. 16 among private and public schools combined.

On a night of celebration, Dr. William T. Hold paused in reflection. It's amazing to me," Hold, co-founder, executive chairman and retired president of The National Alliance for Insurance Education and Research, said to professional and academic associates in the Grand Ballroom of the FSU Alumni Center. I sit and wonder, 'How did this ever happen?'"

For a barometer on a college or university's performance, don't forget employers. Allen Blay certainly doesn't. "The employers who hire our students consider FSU one of their favorite places to recruit because our students outperform when they get into the field," says Blay, the EY Professor and chair of the Department of Accounting. "Our students outperform our competitor universities, because they're well trained, and they've got a fire lit under them."

Bruce Lamont's office features cleared shelves and dozens of packed boxes. But he isn't going anywhere. He's sending his academic journals on a benevolent 8,000-mile journey to a new home. Lamont, chair of the College of Business' Department of Management and the director of research at the Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship, is donating his four-decades-long collection of journals to Addis Ababa University's College of Business and Economics, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Officials in the College of Business see lofty rankings as a guidepost.

Better yet, a lighthouse.

"It's a signal to us that we're on the right track," said Ashley Bush, chair of the Department of Business Analytics, Information Systems and Supply Chain, or BAISSC. "It's a signal to students that there's value in the degree, and it's a signal to potential employers that we have a high-quality program."

Charles Hardwick told a lecture hall full of students last month that decades from now they'll look back – just as he has done with gratitude and magnitude – on their time at Florida State University and the College of Business. "Who is it you are going to remember?" he asked them. They'll likely remember their best professors, he said. If they're like him, they'll want to thank them, along with the college and university. And he's doing so generously.

Having built a rock-solid private equity firm, Peter Collins knows a little something about earth science – which he likens to raising money for a private equity fund. "Fundraising is like geology," he said. "It's all about time and pressure. It's cold calling. It's going and seeing people. It's about determination, and that's really, at the end of the day, what you get paid for."