100 Years of Business Education

This summer, Baylor celebrates 100 years of business education. The Baylor Business School was established in 1923 after President Samuel Palmer Brooks proposed the idea in 1919 as America was recovering from World War I. In 1924, the school offered its first bachelor’s degree in business administration. Then on May 21, 1925, the first class graduated from the School of Commerce and Business Administration.

In 1950, the business school was admitted with provisional associate membership in the American Association of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). As the program continued to strengthen, the business school attained complete associate membership in 1953. Full accreditation for the business school was achieved in 1959. That year, Earl Hankamer, a member of the Board or Regents, offered a gift of $500,000 to cover the costs of constructing and furnishing a new building.

After the plans for the Hankamer building were approved, the AACSB granted full membership to the business school. Even today, only 5 percent of business schools worldwide have AACSB International Accreditation. The Hankamer School of Business has gone on to be one of the top-ranked schools in the nation.

In celebrating 100 years in business education, Baylor continues to create innovative programs based on industry needs, providing national leadership in areas such as entrepreneurship, the M.B.A. Focus Firm, Baylor Angel Network’s intern program, professional selling, sports sponsorship, the student-managed investment fund, music and entertainment marketing, and the Business Fellows program.

This year, among the U.S. News Best Business Schools, the full-time M.B.A. program in Baylor’s Hankamer School of Business is ranked at No. 60 overall, highlighted by the graduate program in entrepreneurship moving up into the Top 10 in the nation.