20th century By the end of
World War I in 1918, the
United States had become the leading economic power in the world, and both U.S. domestic business and U.S. investment in overseas operations surged. In 1962, the BPA's graduate MBA program became one of the first MBA programs accredited by AACSB. In 1964 women enrollment grew significantly, and after several years women became fully integrated into student networking organizations and clubs. By 1966 BPA issued its first
doctoral degree—Doctor of
Business Administration (DBA), and within three years this became a PhD program. Over the next three years, BPA segmented the undergraduate business curriculum into separate disciplines such as
Information Systems,
Marketing,
Business and
Public Policy,
Accounting,
Organizational Behavior (now
Management), and
Quantitative (now
Statistics) in order to better align with business practices. During the same period, BPA actively undertook initiatives to increase enrollment of
women and
minorities, such as recruiting at
historically black colleges and universities and providing targeted financial aid. In 1973, the
Business Administration department within BPA was spun off as a standalone
college called College of Business and Management (CBM), with professional jazz saxophone player Rudolph "Rudy" P. Lamone appointed to begin his nineteen-year
tenure as
Dean. Two years later, the part-time evening MBA programs catering to working professionals were launched at both CBM's main campus in
College Park, Maryland and CBM's secondary campus north west in
Shady Grove, Maryland. In 1978, CBM instituted its own undergraduate
admissions program to enable more selective student recruitment. In 1979, the school offered its first
Master of Science (MS) degrees, including an MS in the newly added discipline
Finance. In 1987, CBM launched a pioneering entrepreneurship
incubator called Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship, which was named after donor
Michael D. Dingman, the founder of Signal Corporation (later merged into
AlliedSignal, and then into
Honeywell). In 1993, CBM consolidated from Tydings Hall and other College Park locations into the newly constructed Van Munching Hall on the College Park campus, which building was named after alumnus donor Leo Van Munching Jr., the president of a
New York City company that imported
Heineken beer. The same year, the College of Business and Management Foundation (CBMF) infused $250,000 into a
student-run investment management fund named The
Terrapin Fund. In 1995, CBM was renamed to the Maryland Business School (MBS). In 1996, MBS reached into
Europe for the first time by partnering with the
University of Łódź to deliver a Management Education program in
Łódź, Poland. Also in 1996, the school augmented its
MBA program with an
experiential learning module (ELM) wherein the school suspends all activities in order to focus on
Ethics. In 1999, The Terrapin Fund was renamed to the Mayer Fund in honor of alumnus donor William Emilio Mayer. In the mid-1990s, groundbreaking
online marketplace platforms and
e-commerce payment systems such as
Amazon.com (1995),
eBay (1995), and
PayPal (1998) were launched. In 1998, the school recognized the growing role of
information technology by adding new MBA
concentrations such as
Telecommunication,
Technology management,
Supply Chain and
Logistics Management, and
Electronic commerce. The same year, the business school was renamed to Robert H. Smith School of Business in honor of alumnus donor Robert H. Smith (RHS), who was the real estate developer behind building
Crystal City complex in
Arlington County, Virginia. One year later, RHS extended its part-time evening MBA program to a new
Baltimore campus. Also in 1999, a second donation from alumnus Leo Van Munching Jr. was used to begin an expansion that would ultimately double the size of Van Munching Hall.
21st century The Smith School began 2000 by extending the part-time, evening MBA program to a 3rd campus in
Washington, D.C. Two years later RHS completed the expansion of Van Munching Hall, and RHS was able to consolidate all
undergraduate and
graduate school students into a single building. In 2003, the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship helped launch a public
venture capital fund for fledgling mid-Atlantic companies called the New Markets Growth Fund (NMGF). In 2003, the Smith School added its executive MBA (EMBA) program to the College Park campus curriculum, and made its first inroads into
Asia by developing and teaching the EMBA curriculum in
Beijing,
China in partnership with the hosting
University of International Business and Economics. In 2006 the college instituted a graduate Master of Business in
Accounting program, in part to satisfy increased industry demand for audit professionals due to the 2002 U.S. Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The same year, the Smith School launched the
Lemma Senbet Fund student-run investment management fund for undergraduate Finance students starting with an initial capital infusion of $50,000. In 2009, Smith added another
Master of Science (MS) business degree with a concentration in
Finance. In the 2000s, most major universities began to add web-based ("online") courses to their curriculum. In 2013, the Smith School created its first online degree program, which culminates in an MBA. == Campuses ==