Emory Report

September 2, 1997

Volume 50, No. 2

Business school dean helps paves courtyard with faculty, staff bricks

Faculty and staff of the Goizueta School of Business have left their mark on the school's new building literally, thanks to Dean Ronald Frank.

Through the school's fund-raising effort, Frank and his wife bought marble "pavers" inscribed with the names of all the school's approximately 130 faculty and staff as of March 1. The marble bricks form the courtyard of the U-shaped building.

"My wife [Iris] and I thought it was a way of celebrating the community," Frank said. "A lot of faculty and staff-all of them-have contributed in different ways to where the school is at this point in time, and I thought it was a way of recognizing the community and putting it in stone permanently."

Apparently the school's faculty shares his vision. "It was a wonderful gesture. It's a nice recognition that, not literally but figuratively, the entire community is what is building this institution," said Patrick Noonan, assistant professor of decision and information analysis. "This institution has been growing and changing rapidly and growing in its recognition and quality, and that's not something the dean does by himself-that's something the faculty, the staff, the students and the alumni do."

Ellie Thompson, director of alumni relations for the school, said the brick-selling campaign was hindered by a very similar campaign in progress simultaneously. "It was difficult trying to sell bricks to alumni at the same time the Olympic brick campaign was going on because those were traditional red bricks, whereas these were six-by-nine inch marble tiles, so the cost was very different," she said.

The marble pavers sold for $100 apiece to alumni, $50 for students. Thompson said the campaign raised $11,000 toward the school's building fund. Frank said all but $1.5 million of the building's $26 million price tag has been raised, and though he plans to retire next year once the search committee finds a replacement, "my successor should not have to worry about [raising the rest of the money]."

-Michael Terrazas