The STATE of Golf Volume 1 - 2014 | Page 4

F R O M T H E D E A N

Dr. Sharon Oswald

Dean, College of Business and Industry at Mississippi State University

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by about 17 percent this Fall making this the largest freshman class in the College of Business in the school history. Total enrollment for the college was just shy of 2500. Early indication shows that we are on target for another great recruiting year.

There is a lot of excitement on campus coming off the great baseball season of the Diamond Dawgs. And it is just a great time to be at MSU! We had a record year of fundraising for both the University and the College—raising over $80 million for the university and just under $6 million for the College. In October the university kicked off a $600 million multi-year capital campaign entitled Infinite Impact. The College of Business portion of the goal is $60 million. Philanthropy is essential to the future of our university and the College of Business. MSU has made an infinite impact on the lives of nearly 29,000 College of Business alums. If you would like to make a contribution to the capital campaign, please know that you can make a impact on the PGA Golf Management program through a designated gift.

This Fall we celebrated a big milestone in the College—the 50th anniversary of our Business Information Systems program. In 1963 when this program began, no other college of business in the country was offering this major. In fact, in the late 1950s MSU was one of the very first universities in the south to even have a computer! University of Alabama computer science students drove the 90 miles to Starkville one night a week to learn on the MSU computer

Another major milestone is coming up in 2015 when the College of Business turns 100. Your alma mater is not only the oldest College of Business in the

state, but one of the oldest in the

southeast. We are beginning preparation for the big year. We would love for you to share some stories/memories with us that we can include in the year-long celebration. And during our year-long celebration we will also be recognizing 30 years of the PGA Golf Management program--another program where MSU was a pioneer and help to set the future standards of excellence.

It was great to see so many of our alums during parents’ weekend and throughout the fall semester. We always love having you back on campus and when you are here please stop by the Dean’s office. I love to get to know our alums and find out where you are. I hope each and every one of you has a wonderful holiday season and a safe a prosperous new year.

Go Dawgs!

T

his has been another great year for the College of Business. New freshman enrollment increased by