MEDIA RESOURCES

CONTACT: communications@mail.cox.smu.edu

DALLAS, Texas (SMU) - At SMU's Cox School of Business, students don't end their connection with the business school at graduation, rather they begin a long-term relationship, investing in the school and its future students. The Cox School's 2001 Executive MBA Class completed the school year with a $1 million class gift. This endowment is the first gift from an Executive MBA class and the largest gift from a graduating class. There were 57 members of the Executive MBA class, and every member made a commitment to the fund. This gift represents one of the largest, if not the largest, gift donated by any Executive MBA program in the nation.

The full-time MBA class contributed $300,000 to the Cox School, an impressive increase from last year's class gift of $223,000. There were 108 graduates in the class, and every member made a contribution.

"The $1 million gift from our Executive MBAs is incredible. The average pledge of almost $20,000 per graduate is a huge commitment from our graduates and a tremendous compliment to the Cox School. The $300,000 gift from our full-time MBA students is equally impressive. To my knowledge, this is the largest per student contribution by a full-time MBA class in the nation. This represents tremendous satisfaction with their Cox experience," said Albert W. Niemi, Jr., dean of the Cox School of Business.

The Executive MBA gift will be used to implement a professional business case study program at the Cox School of Business. With the assistance of area businesses, the case study program will be similar to the programs offered at Harvard University and Stanford University. The program will enrich the business curriculum with insights based on the local business environment and provide shared learning in business strategy, marketing, operations, finance, organizational behavior, and other areas of business. Three to four cases studies will be scheduled per year. Funds from the full-time MBA gift will be used to support the Career Management Office and the MBA Scholarship Fund.

The Cox School full-time MBA Program was recently ranked 9th in the world by The Wall Street Journal and the Executive MBA Program is ranked 12th by U.S. News & World Report.