President Scott Cowen on Freeman’s 100-year Anniversary

Good Morning:

If a place has been in business for 100 years, you know it’s got to be good. The A. B. Freeman School of Business hits the 100-year mark next fall and, in true New Orleans fashion, has been celebrating all year long. Last week, NASDAQ noted the school’s centennial on its iconic, seven-story MarketSite Tower in Times Square.

From its founding in 1914 as the College of Commerce and Business with a $5,000 operating budget, the Freeman School has been dedicated to educating the business leaders oftomorrow and today. In fact, its first classes, held at 315 Camp Street, were designed for working professionals, meeting nightly at 8 p.m. The initial offerings also included courses such as Foreign Trade and Commercial Spanish, reflecting the international focus of both the school and city.

Today, the Freeman School is known worldwide, with more than 2,500 students ranging from undergraduates to PhDs in programs that span the globe. That initial Commercial Spanish course has grown into the only MBA program in the country that sends its students to Latin America, Europe and Asia as part of their studies. Those first night courses are now graduate business programs available in New Orleans, Houston, Mexico, Colombia, Guatemala, Panama, Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Taiwan and China.

Whether by buying Tulane’s first computer in 1958 and becoming one of the earliest business schools to embrace computer-based instruction, or by starting innovative programs such as Burkenroad Reports, the Levy-Rosenblum Institute of Entrepreneurship, the Energy Institute and more, the A. B. Freeman School has earned its reputation as a leader in local, regional and global business education. Its roots run deep at Tulane and in the heart of New Orleans.

Have a great weekend,

P.S. And don’t forget to be at the Dome tomorrow at 2:30 p.m.when Tulane takes care of business against Tulsa.