The Marriott School of Business is the business school of Brigham Young University (BYU), a private university owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and located in Provo, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1891 and renamed in 1988 after J. Willard Marriott, founder of Marriott International, and his wife Alice following their $15 million endowment gift to the school.
The school is housed in the N. Eldon Tanner Building and supports 137 full-time faculty and approximately 200 adjunct, part-time or visiting faculty, full-time staff and students who teach. It has approximately 2,100 undergraduate and 1,200 graduate students, and approximately 62 percent of its student body are bilingual. As of 2019, its alumni base numbers 55,000.
Description Going by several different names since its inception in 1891, the business school at BYU had been known as the Marriott School of Management since 1988, when Marriott International founders J. Willard and Alice Marriott made a $15 million (equivalent to $ million in ) donation to the school. In 2017, the name was changed to the Marriott School of Business. The Marriott School is housed in the N. Eldon Tanner Building and offers five undergraduate and six graduate degrees.
Ethical decision-making is strongly emphasized at the school: undergraduate students are required to complete 14 hours of religion coursework for graduation, all Marriott School students must take at least one course in management ethics, and both students and faculty must commit to abide by the university's honor code. The school also exhibits a unique culture because the majority of its student and faculty are members of the LDS Church.
Many Marriott School students obtain a level of foreign language proficiency while serving as LDS Church missionaries. (Sixty-five percent of the student body is bilingual.) Consequently, the Marriott School sponsors high-proficiency business language courses in 11 languages. The school claims over 55,000 alumni and is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.
History In 1891, Brigham Young Academy, the predecessor to BYU, formed the Commercial College, which offered coursework in business education. A decade later, the college began offering its first four-year degree program. After Brigham Young Academy was separated into Brigham Young High School and Brigham Young University in 1903, the college was renamed the College of Commerce and Business Administration as part of the university. The next decade was tough for the college, as "BYU struggled through the World War I, a flu epidemic [that] closed the school during the fall term of 1918, and school indebtedness that resulted in the 1918 LDS purchase of both BYU's assets and debts." Starting in 1921, the college was housed in the Maeser Building, where it would remain for 13 years.
The Wall Street Crash of 1929 significantly depleted LDS Church funds, which caused the church to consider closing BYU. However, "the transference of a number of church junior colleges allowed BYU to remain in operation." By 1935, the church regained its financial footing and provided more aid to BYU, and the school grew slowly over the next ten years. The business college subsequently began offering master's degrees in 1939; however, the programs were hit hard beginning in 1941 when its enrollment (particularly that of men) dropped due to U.S. involvement in World War II. But later that decade, U.S. military veterans returned to school, and in 1945 enrollment doubled. William F. Edwards oversaw the college's growth over the next several years until 1957, when the school was re-branded as the College of Business and Weldon J. Taylor was appointed as its first dean. A year later the business school held its first management conference, and in 1960 the school was moved to the newly completed Jesse Knight Building.
A Master of Business Administration (MBA) program was added in 1961, and the school formed its National Advisory Council in 1966. In 1973, the school bestowed its first International Executive of the Year Award on AT&T president Robert D. Lilley. Bruce B. Orton served as interim dean of the school for a year until 1975, when Merrill J. Bateman was recruited from a management position at candy-maker Mars, Inc. to become the dean. That same year, the school was separated into the School of Management for undergraduate studies and the Graduate School of Management, which grouped together the MBA, MPA, MOB, and MAcc programs. A year later, the business school created a School of Accountancy within its jurisdiction and printed its first issue of Exchange magazine (now Marriott Alumni Magazine). In 1977, the BYU Management Society was organized.
In 1979, William G. Dyer became dean of the school. Dyer oversaw the construction of the N. Eldon Tanner Building, which was dedicated in 1982. In 1983, an Executive MBA program was added, and in 1984 Paul H. Thompson was appointed dean of the school. Two years later, the International Student Sponsor Program was started, which continues to provide financial assistance to married Latter-day Saint international students to this day. In 1988, the name of the school was changed to Marriott School of Management in honor of its benefactors—Marriott International founders J. Willard and Alice Marriott—following their $15 million donation to the school. That same year, the Army and Air Force ROTC programs became a part of the Marriott School.
In 1989, K. Fred Skousen became dean of the school. In that year, the school's endowment exceeded $10 million, and the school was awarded a Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) grant by the U.S. Department of Education. In 1993, the Organizational Leadership and Strategy Department was created, and a year later the school instituted a limited-enrollment policy. Also in 1994, the school began offering a minor in management. By 1998, the school's endowment had reached $40 million and the Institute of Public Management was renamed in honor of George W. Romney, who during his lifetime served as chairman of American Motors Corporation, Governor of Michigan, and U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. That same year, Ned C. Hill was named dean of the Marriott School.
The Melvin J. Ballard Center for Social Impact was formed in 2003, and the Information Systems Department was created in 2005. That same year the CESR also participated in the production of the microcredit documentary Small Fortunes, which aired nationwide on October 27, 2005, on PBS. In 2006, the school's worldwide initiatives were organized under the Kay and Yvonne Whitmore Global Management Center, named for former Kodak CEO Kay Whitmore and his wife.
In 2006, members of the school's faculty were involved in controversy surrounding the U.S. Republican Party presidential primaries. On October 9, Dean Hill and Associate Dean W. Steve Albrecht sent an e-mail to 50 BYU Management Society members and 100 members of the school's National Advisory Council asking them to support Mitt Romney's bid for the U.S. presidency. Hill and Albrecht signed the message with their official BYU titles, sent the e-mail from a BYU e-mail address, and began the message "Dear Marriott School Friend." Both the LDS Church and BYU, as tax-exempt, nonprofit organizations, are prohibited by federal law from endorsing a particular candidate or political party. Albrecht said that he should not have sent it in his capacity as a BYU dean: "It wasn't something BYU did, it wasn't something I probably should have done, and it was bad judgment."
By 2007, the school's endowment reached $130 million, and in 2008, the Tanner Building Addition was dedicated. In 2013, the endowment reached $182.1 million. Also during this year, the Finance Department was formed in an effort to strengthen curriculum and placement; the Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology was created in honor of former Dell CEO Kevin Rollins and his wife, Debra; and administrators announced the addition of a Recreation Management and Youth Leadership (RMYL) Department to the school. The latter department was formerly under BYU's College of Health and Human Performance and comprises the academic disciplines of leisure services management, therapeutic recreation, Scouting administration, non-profit management, and youth leadership. In 2017, the Recreation Management program was converted to the Experience Design & Management program, and the Therapeutic Recreation emphasis was retired.
In August 2017, BYU announced the name would be changed from the Marriott School of Management to the Marriott School of Business.
In May 2018, Brigitte C. Madrian, a behavioral economist from the faculty at the Harvard Kennedy School, was named the ninth dean of the Marriott School of Business and is the first female to serve as dean.
Campus
The Marriott School is located on the campus of BYU, which is situated in the urban, Wasatch Front area of Provo, Utah. The school is principally housed inside the N. Eldon Tanner Building. At the building's construction announcement in 1980, BYU president Dallin H. Oaks said that the Board of Trustees named it in honor of N. Eldon Tanner (a Canadian politician and counselor to four LDS Church presidents) because he was known in Canada as "Mr. Integrity"—a title wished upon every Marriott School graduate. At the groundbreaking for the building on November 8, 1980, "explosives that were used to remove the soil showered unsuspecting spectators with dust and pebbles." The Tanner Building was completed in late 1982 and dedicated on April 5, 1983, by Gordon B. Hinckley. Today, the seven-story, granite building houses Marriott School classrooms as well as professor and administration offices. A addition, costing $43 million and funded by donations, was dedicated on October 24, 2008, by alumnus Thomas S. Monson. The addition increased the building's capacity by 53 percent and provides 10 tiered classrooms, one network teaching room, one large assembly room, and 39 study rooms.
The Tanner Building is located directly west of central campus. To its immediate north is the Gordon B. Hinckley Alumni and Visitors Center and on-campus housing Helaman Halls. Its western and southern sides are covered by athletic facilities. Close by is also the newly renovated Jesse Knight Building, where some business school classes are held. Additionally, a parking garage is located adjacent to the Tanner Building.
Academics Organization and research
Marriott School subsidiaries(Department/school) Accountancy, School of Aerospace Studies (Air Force ROTC) Business Management Finance Global Supply Chain Information Systems Marketing Military Science (Army ROTC) Organizational Leadership and Strategy Romney Institute of Public Service and Ethics Experience Design and Management
As part of the larger institution of BYU, the Marriott School is ultimately administered by BYU's president and board of trustees. Under them, the school is directly managed by a dean (currently Brigitte C. Madrian), who is advised by three associate deans and the school's advisory council. The school has nine academic departments, each overseen by a department chair. The Marriott School student body has its own student council, which serves an umbrella organization for Marriott School clubs. The school houses student chapters for national associations including the Society for Human Resource Management, the Collegiate Entrepreneurs' Organization, Rotaract, and Net Impact. There is also a chapter of the honorary association Beta Alpha Psi.