October 20, 2012
Alumni ignite accreditation drive
By Vicki-Ann Downing
Alumni have always supported business programs at Providence College. They return to campus to speak and mentor students, they hire graduates and offer internships, and they serve on the Business Advisory Council.
In 2000, a push from alumni set the College on a course to establish a separate business school and to gain accreditation by AACSB International, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.
Kenneth G. Kraetzer ’79 realized the benefits of accreditation while studying for an M.B.A. at Iona College, which was in the process of attaining it. Kraetzer knew the distinction would benefit PC, too.
“You can’t be a big-league college without it,” said Kraetzer. “It went from being a nice thing to a necessity.”
In those days, all of PC’s undergraduate business departments — accountancy, finance, management, and marketing — operated independently, overseen by a vice president for academic administration, Dr. Thomas L. Canavan.
To achieve accreditation would require reorganization and a years-long commitment from faculty, staff, and administrators.
To gain support for his accreditation proposal, Kraetzer enlisted the help of alumni on the Board of Trustees, including Alfred A. Lamy ’53. Both were members of the New York Club of the National Alumni Association. Lamy arranged for them to travel to Providence and make their pitch to Canavan.
Canavan, while supportive, cautioned that the process would take many years. He needed the endorsement of then-College President Rev. Philip A. Smith, O.P. ’63 and the commitment of faculty, who ultimately would be responsible for the effort. But Kraetzer, who gathered a dozen alumni on a committee to garner support for the idea, was persistent.
“Ken, when he gets on a mission, is one of those people who is kind of like a dog on a bone,” said E. James Mulcahy ’66, chairman of the College’s National Board of Overseers. “He is very loyal to the College, very cognizant of what it needs, just a smart guy. He did whatever he could to push it.”
“Ken wanted to do it, but he didn’t know how to do it,” said Lamy. “He didn’t have the contacts. Since he knew me well from being on the New York Club, he asked me to help him. Canavan was the third person in the car. He was the implementation part of it.”
In 2003, the business faculty voted to pursue accreditation. In 2004, after the four business disciplines were organized under a Division of Business Administration, Dr. Hugh F. Lena, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, began overseeing the process.
In 2007, with Rev. Brian J. Shanley, O.P. ’80 as president, the College established the School of Business with its first full-time dean.
Last July, when accreditation was awarded, Dr. Patrick T. Kelly, associate professor of accountancy and then interim dean of the business school, reported an outpouring of congratulations from alumni.
“It validates who we are and what we are,” said trustee Kevin C. Phelan ’66, a member of the Business Advisory Council who was involved in the early effort. “It moves us into a league that we believe we should be in and are now in, as validated by our peers. As a trustee, as an alum, as a business school alum, I’m very pleased.”
