UT Dallas Celebrates 40th Anniversary of the Jindal School

The University of Texas at Dallas – Naveen Jindal School of Management recently held an event celebrating the school’s 40th anniversary, honoring four decades of education and excellence.

The event, which was held on March 1st, honored the students, faculty and supporters of JSOM over the last forty years. Dr. Richard C. Benson, current President-Designate for UT Dallas, was present at the event, eliciting excitement and applause from an audience of roughly 125 guests.

JSOM currently boasts an enrollment of roughly 8,000 students and 270 faculty members. In 1973, however, when UT Dallas offered their first graduate program in management science, there were four part-time students enrolled. Two years later, led by Dr. Raymond P. Lutz, the School of Management was established, awarding 17 bachelor’s and 26 master’s degrees in that year. In 2015, 471 bachelor’s, 934 master’s, and three doctoral degrees were awarded to graduates.

Throughout the night, figures were recognized who had played an integral part in JSOM’s growth and success. Much credit was given to Jindal School Dean Hasan Pirkul, who made necessary changes to the school in order to achieve accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate School of Business International. Pirkul also established the “UTD Top 100 Business School Research Rankings”, a database which could measure publication productivity from faculty members.

The event also honored the alumni who have given so much support to the school throughout the years, particularly the $45 million philanthropic package provided by alumni Naveen Jindal MBA’92, Charles Davidson MS’80, and Nancy Gundy Davidson BS’80, which led to the school’s renaming for Jindal.

During his speech, Pirkul acknowledged how far JSOM had grown in business school rankings. Despite a slow start, the Jindal School’s Full-Time MBA program is currently 37th in the nation and 4th in Texas in the U.S. News & World Report’s 2017 rankings. The Professional MBA program moved up three spots in the same ranking this year to No. 26. “The school, all of us together, have earned the right to expect from ourselves to be the very best,” he said.

regions: Dallas

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