Odds are that anyone associated with Johnson & Wales University can recite the “one student, one typewriter in 1914” legend of founding mothers, Gertrude I. Johnson and Mary T. Wales. They’ve heard about World War II veterans Morris Gaebe ’98 Hon. and Edward Triangolo ’80 Hon. taking over the secretarial school in 1947, and expanding course offerings based on the most frequent help-wanted ads. Most even know that 1973 was the watershed year when culinary arts education began (in Johnson & Wales vernacular, B.C., before culinary, and A.C., after.

At that point, Johnson & Wales was a business college of 1,600 students, a fraction of the 4,755 now enrolled in the College of Business alone. Since then, some majors — like court reporting — have become history, “But management, marketing, accounting, finance are still core degrees from when I was an undergrad,” says Eric Gamble ’89, who joined the faculty in Providence in 2002, moving to Charlotte in 2004. “Just because something doesn’t change dramatically, doesn’t mean it isn’t good. Like with cars, the ones that are highly respected — Volvo, Saab — very little change happens to their shape, but their performance gets better.”

To up performance over the decades, JWU tailored its business programs to maximize career opportunities. Finance morphed into the more in-demand financial services management. Accounting majors can now concentrate in such fast growing disciplines as fraud examination, casino operations and information technology.

In Charlotte, accounting itself has evolved into management accounting. “Most college accounting programs are very similar, training students to become certified public accountants," explains Roland Sparks, D.BA., Charlotte's business department chair. “But we found that only 20 percent of the accountants
working need a C.P.A., while 80 percent actually work in the management accounting field ... money coming into a company, how it’s distributed, and how it manages to make the company more money.” Through collaboration with the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA), the campus developed “one-stop shopping" in the field with an IMA Learning Center, where students prepare for and take the Certified Management Accountant (C.M.A.) exam, and may become internationally certified before graduation, an obvious edge in the job market. The center also serves the greater business community as a site for C.M.A. review classes, testing, chapter meetings and continuing education. Based on Charlotte’s success, the Denver Campus recently opened its own IMA Learning Center with an eye toward offering management accounting to its students, too.

Through the IMA affiliation, JWU Accounting Club members attend the national IMA conference. “It allows our students to get involved with a professional organization which they’ll be involved with for the rest of their accounting life,” adds Sparks. It’s just one of many career-related clubs at the campuses, including the Fashion Society, Minorities About Business, Society for Human Resource Management, American Marketing Association and Criminal Justice Society

For potential business students, such curricular and extracurricular developments have elevated JWU’s prestige from safety school to dream school. Greater selectivity used in admitting students to increasingly competitive slots means, “There’s less of a knowledge gap that you have to close in the classroom, which means you can change your trajectory of success and take them further into the knowledge base,” says Gamble, noting that JWU has kept pace with the concomitant need for enhanced instruction by recruiting faculty with “not only industry skills, but also with the appropriate teaching skills.” His work experience at IBM, Oracle and high-tech start ups, coupled with his current pursuit of a Ph.D. in urban education, embodies this blending of industry and education.

Gamble’s JWU degree in computer systems management moved to the School of Technology and became technology services management, but what hasn’t changed is that business students still hear, “You’re at JWU? I didn’t know you wanted to be a chef.”

“If I had a dime for every time I’ve been asked if I cook, I would have socked away my retirement fund by now,” says the father of four. But Gamble saw the mistaken identity as a challenge. “It fed your fire to go and do things to separate yourself from the pack and give credence to the College of Business that it’s doing what it needs to do.”

And those who know JWU know that business permeates all of its majors. Review the classes for any student, regardless of college, and management is the word that appears most often in course titles. Yet even with the deepest roots at JWU, the most stunning change within the College of Business occurred just last year when, along with The Hospitality College, it eliminated associate degree programs. “It’s not just about that first job after graduation,” says Dave Mitchell, Ph.D., dean of the College of Business at the Providence Campus. “We want to set up our students for long-term career growth, and employers have made it clear that a bachelor’s is required.”

This evolution brought with it new opportunities such as the accelerated management program. Starting in September 2010, associate degree graduates from other accredited institutions who meet eligibility requirements can seamlessly earn a bachelor’s degree in management.

Sparks muses that the reason he chose to join JWU is the reason students should pursue a degree in its College of Business, too. “JWU is not a typical academic school; it’s run like a business,” he says. “And that’s great because our students see firsthand how business actually works; how it’s efficient and successful. It’s a great environment for students in business.” Just as it’s always been.