Commerce or business courses have been offered at Shenandoah University for the past 120 years. Many of those early courses focused on bookkeeping, commercial law, commercial arithmetic, commercial forms, banking, business correspondence, orthography, and penmanship. It was 25 years ago, however, that The Harry F. Byrd, Jr. School of Business was created honoring Senator Harry F. Byrd, Jr., publisher, businessman, and former United States Senator from Virginia who served the Commonwealth and the nation with great distinction. Senator Byrd's family tradition of fiscal conservatism, unquestioned integrity, and distaste for political expediency, has deeply infused the philosophy of the Byrd School of Business. While his influence on the political life of Virginia during the 20th century is long-lasting, his legacy to the graduates of the Byrd School is even more profound.
In celebration of the Silver Anniversary of the naming of the Byrd School of Business, November 5 will be a special day commemorating a quarter century of excellence in business education under the Byrd name. Readers of the Byrd Business Review are invited to attend an 11:00 a.m. celebration in Stimpson Auditorium of Halpin-Harrison Hall. Voices of appreciation will include students, alumni, board members, and administrators.
W. Randy Boxx
Dean & George Edward Durell Chair of Management
rboxx@su.edu
Then, as well as now, the Byrd School of Business has provided a learning environment that brought together people, cultures, and ideas from around the world. With a solid educational foundation built on sound business principles, the Byrd School looks forward to its future of graduating principled leaders with a global outlook, a broad, strategic mindset, and innovative thinkers who will redefine the nature of business and impact the world. The faculty, staff, and I are proud and honored to call ourselves the Byrd School.
BB&T FREE MARKET SCHOLARS PROGRAM ESTABLISHED
Front row – Crystal Williams and Rebecca Chauza. Back row – Paul Milligan, Morgan Winn, Kevin Rehm, and James Poole. Not pictured: Aaron Braesicke. Shenandoah University recently received $150,000 from the BB&T Charitable Foundation in Winston-Salem, NC to support the study of capitalism in the Byrd School of Business. This support enables the School to provide an additional and important element of academic enrichment that would not have been otherwise possible to offer our student body. The School is now in the implementation stage of the grant. Through the BB&T Free Market Scholars Program, scholarships were provided to seven entering freshmen this fall. A new course on the Moral Foundations of Business has been developed by Dr. Clifford Thies, Eldon R. Lindsay Professor of Economics and Finance, who will administer the grant. Library books and films related to the course are in the process of being purchased for use by the entire Shenandoah student body. A spring symposium on The Moral Foundations of Free Enterprise and the Panic of 2008 is in the development stage. The Byrd School is committed to the preparation of our students for principled leadership, to collaboration among faculty and students, and to incorporating experience-based learning into our educational programs.
BYRD SCHOOL CO-SPONSORING ACADEMIC JOURNAL
Fulfilling their mission of advancing research and scholarship, the Byrd School of Business at Shenandoah University and the Grove College of Business at Shippensburg University have recently joined together to be co-sponsors of the Academy of Business Disciplines Journal which is dedicated to publishing quality applied research papers, invited editorials, and pedagogical applications in all areas of business. The ABD Journal is the official publication of the Academy of Business Disciplines. Areas of research include: Accounting, administrative issues, business education, business law, e-commerce, entrepreneurship, ethics, decision sciences, finance, management information systems, international business, management, marketing, pedagogy, quality management, real estate, and supply chain/operations management. In addition to Dean Boxx who will serve as an Executive Editor along with Dean Anthony Winter of Shippensburg University, Dr. Charles Pineno will serve as an Associate Editor along with the following Byrd School faculty members who will be members of the Review Board: Drs. Robert Bonometti, Bruce Gouldey, Sally Kim, Bingguang Li, William Schulte, and Clifford Thies.
TRAVEL AND LEARN BUSINESS IN INDIA DURING THE WINTER BREAK
The Harry F. Byrd, Jr. School of Business and the Global & Community Education Program at Shenandoah University have teamed up to offer this first-ever winter break study program in India. GEL India (Global Experiential Learning) will take place between December 26, 2009 and January 10, 2010 and will include travel to and an academic study program in the northern Indian cities of Chandigarh and New Delhi. Students have the option of earning credits at either the undergraduate or graduate level for the course, Travel Seminar in International Business.
During this study tour, students will meet with local business leaders and government officials. They will use the opportunity to observe local and multinational business operations and explore the variety of complex and multifaceted phenomena that defines India. Our Indian hosts will share their personal experiences, perspectives, and insights. Additional opportunities for a more comprehensive understanding of India will be established through visits to historical, political, and cultural sites, and through the participants’ own experiences of exploration and discovery during the visit.
For details of the program, please contact Dean R.T. Good, Global & Community Education, at rgood@su.edu or 540-665-1290.
