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Dear Alumni and Friends,

As a College community, we joined for our 2023 College of Business Alumni Luncheon at the Four Seasons in April to celebrate the success of two of our distinguished graduates: Tom Daly, the Doc Laborde Award for Ethical Entrepreneurship recognizes those entrepreneurs among us who promote high ethical standards in all their business dealings. After graduating from Jesuit High School in 1988, Tom accepted the Presidential Scholarship to attend Loyola University of New Orleans – completing the honors curriculum and graduating in 1992.  

And the 2023 Alumnus of the Year Award in the College of Business was presented to Cynthia Lee Sheng. Cynthia Lee Sheng was sworn into office in January 2020 as the first female Parish President for Jefferson Parish. Cynthia graduated from Loyola's College of Business in 1989. Congratulations to both of our award honorees!

In addition, I am proud to share just a few highlights from the College of Business. Recently, an accreditation team from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (or AACSB), with representatives from peer and aspirant institutions decided to recommend renewing our full accreditation for our college after visiting our campus in March. We were delighted with the successful outcome of this reaccreditation process. 

In advance of our accreditation visit, we came together as a College to develop new mission and vision statements to guide our strategic path forward. Specifically, the College commenced a process that included faculty, staff, and the Visiting Committee to help define our mission, vision and shared values. The following three pillars of academic focus emerged: (1) Develop Ethical Decision Making; (2) Instilling an Entrepreneurial Spirit; and (3) Fostering a Global Mindset.

This not only capitalized on existing strengths, but it also articulated key priorities, goals, and initiatives and enabled the college to track, measure, and provide feedback to internal and external stakeholders. More significantly, it established a clear link between the strategic plan, the specific initiatives identified in the plan, and the financial goals of the college. Finally, it linked these priorities directly to those specified in the university's strategic plan.

As a result, multiple new programs, often in conjunction with other units on campus or with partners outside of the university, have created new revenue streams and increased enrollment in the College. 

For example, the College successfully launched an undergraduate major in entrepreneurship this past fall and that program grew quickly to have some of the highest enrollment numbers across the university. Indeed, it was a top ten undergraduate major at Loyola in its first year with 20 new students.

In partnership with international universities in Paris, France, and Munich, Germany, we created the Global MBA program in which students spend one semester at each institution and earn three separate degrees. This ability to develop highly differentiated graduate programs is imperative to maintaining a competitive advantage in the rapidly evolving landscape of higher education.

This May, the second cohort of students graduated with a Master of Science degree in Marketing and Communication. This is a joint online program with the College of Music and Media and continues to be one of the most robust online degree programs at Loyola with over 50 graduates in the last two years.

We are also excited to have an existing partnership with the College of Nursing and Health for an online Master of Science in Healthcare Management program. This program welcomed its inaugural cohort last fall and we are grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with CNH and provide valuable business acumen to these healthcare professionals.

Furthermore, existing programs have been retooled with a market-responsive mindset, particularly with regard to the first-year undergraduate student experience. These programmatic changes have also enhanced the brand equity and reputation of the college. We are proud to offer the highest-ranked degree programs at the university (according to “US News & World Report”) with undergraduate and graduate programs both ranked in the top 25 in the country. 

The Centers of Excellence within the College of Business include the Center for Entrepreneurship and Community Development and the Center for Ethics and Economic Justice, which are both exclusively donor funded. For example, the Center for Entrepreneurship and Community Development has two signature programs with significant cash prizes – LaunchU in the fall and IdeaCorps in the spring, which are generously presented by Dr. Bobby and Lori Kent Savoie.

At the College of Business, we have been successful in ensuring that our students, regardless of their economic backgrounds, are able to pursue and realize opportunities that allow them to fulfill their dreams. Much of this success is accomplished through our Portfolio Program, which provides four years of career readiness training and ensures that all of our students do at least one internship before graduation. This ability to educate the next generation of ethical business leaders and transform the personal and professional trajectory of talented and deserving students is core to our mission. 

Moving forward, the College of Business strives to bring financial literacy to Loyola’s core curriculum and focus on community service initiatives related to financial literacy and financial wellness training. For instance, we created the Center for Ethics and Economic Justice with a focus on financial well-being. Specifically, the Center is in the process of developing a financial literacy program to provide vital training for under-resourced communities on how to build financial stability and avoid debt traps. 

Consist with the 500-year-old Jesuit tradition, our goal is for students in the College of Business to be part of a distinguished learning community, created to cultivate the next generation of ethical business leaders who work for and with others.  Thank you for your continued support of Loyola University and the College of Business and for helping us achieve our goals going forward.

Sincerely,

Michael Capella, Ph.D.

Dean, College of Business