Salbu: I am determined to see the College become the world's preeminent business school for management and technology within the next decade, a vision shared by our faculty, students, alumni, and friends.

Salbu: The cornerstone of a great business school is a great faculty. My highest priority as dean has been to accelerate the growth of tenured and tenure-track faculty. During that time, we have grown the faculty from 53 to 70, as of this fall semester. Over the next five years, our plan is to increase that number to a total of between 90 and 110. These world-class faculty members will drive the College's national and international reputation, ensure the continuation of existing disciplinary and interdisciplinary programs and the development of innovative new ones, and attract the brightest and most promising students, challenging and stretching them to emerge well prepared for the business challenges of a technologically advanced global economy.

Salbu: Securing and deploying endowed chairs and professorships and twenty-four expendable term professorships has been the key to that growth—and that couldn't have happened without private philanthropy. The combination of endowed and expendable chairs and professorships has enabled us to accelerate recruitment and assure retention of exceptional faculty at various stages of their careers. The Management Challenge seeks to sustain and build on this momentum by permanently endowing this increased faculty support that would, in the case of term professorships, otherwise expire.

Salbu: A business school's reputation is driven by the quality and reputation of its faculty. The “academic reputation” portion of the annual college rankings is determined by academic peers from around the country. We want our faculty members to be among those who are known far and wide, year after year, as being the best in their fields. We seek to build a critical mass of highly skilled and regarded faculty across all core business disciplines, and in turn, to compete effectively with the top-ranked business schools that have outpaced us in size, reputation, and capacity to prepare the next generation of business leaders to enhance U.S. competitiveness.

Salbu: To put it succinctly: critical mass. When I arrived in 2006, the size of our faculty, permanent endowment, and annual operating budget were a fraction of our top twenty-five competitors. In the case of the faculty, for example, it wasn't quality that was an issue, but the breadth and depth of their collective expertise. We are in direct competition with the nation's best business schools. In order to compete effectively, we must have the resources to attract and retain the finest faculty at all career stages. The same holds true with our students. It is imperative that we endow substantial numbers of undergraduate scholarships and graduate fellowships. Our goal is to lead the top business schools in attracting and supporting the very best student talent.

Salbu: Our students for generations to come will directly benefit from the many undergraduate Dean's Scholarships and graduate Dean's Fellowships we intend to endow in perpetuity. The Management Challenge will provide the resources to compete regionally and nationally for top student talent.

In addition to expanding opportunities through general merit scholarships, fellowships, and study abroad opportunities, we are also eager to attract the most capable students to participate in our innovative and highly selective interdisciplinary programs such as the Technology and Management and TI:GER® (Technological Innovation: Generating Economic Results) programs.

For years, Tech's Management programs were among the state's and the nation's “best kept secrets” in business education. I have worked with the staff to change that paradigm, particularly within the prospective student population, to one of being a widely sought business school. We have made considerable progress, as evidenced by our rapid rise in the business school rankings and by the feedback we are receiving from high school guidance counselors and prospective students. The new scholarships and fellowships funded through the Management Challenge will make an immeasurable difference in realizing our dreams for the College's future students and alumni.

Salbu: While we are very grateful for the state support we receive, we cannot rely on the state—especially in such difficult economic times—to provide the significant level of funding required to further ascend and secure our place among the nation's top tier of business schools. Private philanthropic support is absolutely essential for making this vision a reality. The College has enjoyed a tremendous level of support from alumni and friends in the past, and one result of that is the College's ultra-modern Technology Square facility our students and faculty now enjoy, considered to be among the best business school facilities in the country. We cannot, however, rest on those laurels. We are operating in a fiercely competitive arena, and making significant progress requires significant work and significant resources. We have every confidence that all those who hold the College of Management dear will accept the Challenge to participate in taking the College to an entirely new level. The time is now.