News Archive

Back to School Luncheon

By Keith Morelli

TAMPA (Nov. 4, 2016) -- Members of the University of the South Florida Foundation's board of directors and alumni visited the Muma College of Business to chat with administrators, faculty and students and to hear firsthand what really goes on in one of the top rated business schools in the nation.

The foundation's Back to School initiative seeks to get foundation officials and other alumni a fuller understand of what's new at USF by making regular visits to each and every college on campus.

This was the first time some of the foundation's board members visited the Muma College of Business in an official capacity and the affair was well attended by those members, students, administrators and faculty. In all, there were 33 in attendance.

Muma College of Business Dean Moez Limayem welcomed the guests and gave a spirited overview of the college he oversees.

First: teach everyone how to pronounced Muma.

"It's Muma," Limayem said, "Moo, like a cow and ma, like a mother."

From there, he launched into what's good at the college.

"We are working really hard," he said. "We have a great team of faculty and staff and wonderful students."

He mentioned top-rated programs, like the MBA program and a groundbreaking externship project in which faculty take semesters off to work in the real business world.
"Unbelievable programs," he said.

Faculty over the past few years go a step further, he said. They just don't teach the numbers, theories and practices of business. They now instill a level of creativity and analytics into courses, to teach students to come up with their own new ideas based on data generated from sound research.

"We want our students to stand out in creativity and analytics," Limayem told the crowd. "We want their right brains and left brains working together."

He mentioned three recent sizeable donations given to the college of business over the past few years, including a $25 million gift from Les and Pam Muma, for whom the college is named. The Mumas both were in attendance and Limayem recognized them, thanking them for their long-time support.

"These are two people who have changed our college forever," he said. "Now this college is one of the best in the country."

The board members and alumni ended their visit with a lunch with Executive MBA students and guest speaker Kimberly Ross, a '92 graduate of USF who now is an executive with energy giant Baker Hughes in Houston.