From pocket calculators to the iPhone 5, the MBA program has come a long way in 40 years.
Getting Better By Kyle Parks MBA ’08 illustration by harry campbell
It was 1973, a year when Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Deep Purple had the biggest rock concerts in Tampa, and The University of Tampa was a relatively small school with 2,133 students. In UT’s Plant Hall, a fledgling Master of Business Administration program was launched that year with just four courses — managerial economics, macroeconomics, management and business ethics — taught to 59 students learning with textbooks and calculators in small classrooms. Most of the first MBA students came from just across the Hillsborough River, employees at local companies like Tampa Electric and GTE. They had heard about the new program from friends and co-workers, since UT didn’t advertise its offerings in those days. “The program was so small the first few years that we used to go hang out with the students after class as one group,” said Michael Truscott, professor emeritus, who taught economics to that first crop of MBA students.
with Age 10 UTjournal winter 2013