Our History
Looking Back. Building the Future.
As we reflect on our last 100 years, we heed the call to out-innovate, out-challenge, and out-reach ourselves in our next 100.
1920
The School of Accountancy opens on the 7th Floor of Manhattan’s Woolworth Building - built only three years before as the world’s tallest building. The location was central to every transit line, and transportation cost a nickel by subway.
1926
Fordham’s business offerings are officially designated as a School of Business, with a four-year, full-time morning program, and a six-year, part-time evening program, both leading to a baccalaureate degree.
1929
A four-year BS program is launched, requiring business students to study liberal arts beside students of Fordham College’s Manhattan Division. Business students take courses including religion, philosophy, English, science and public speaking.
1930
The first business school Bachelor of Science diploma is awarded to George McGrath.
1937
The school expands to include majors in banking, finance management, marketing and general business.
1939
High scholastic achievements earn the school acceptance into the American Association of the Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), proving the equality of Fordham’s school of business with other leading schools in the country – an accreditation that still stands to this day.
1944
The first female students are admitted, and five women – Margaret Brew, Margaret Casey, Roma Fiore, Mary Wallace Turney and Mary Margaret Wallace – would graduate in the Class of 1948.
1947
Fr. R.I. Gannon, S.J., inaugurates a Campus Division of what was then called the undergraduate College of Business Administration. Over the next few years, enrollment would go on to peak at 1,943 students during the 1949-50 academic year.
1957
After several years of planning, on Dec. 24, 1957, Fordham signs a contract with the City of New York for 6.9 acres of land, which would later create the Lincoln Center campus.
1969
After 14 years of planning and construction, the greatest expansion of Fordham’s physical facilities is completed when the Lowenstein Center opens. Housed in this building, the Joseph A. Martino Graduate School of Business Administration launches with an innovative program of evening studies and an impressive enrollment.
1971
The first 180 graduate-level business degrees are awarded on July 28, 1971. The school plans for a major expansion, with curriculum that emphasizes quantitative methods for decision making and the “application of behavioral sciences to management.”
1977
Over a period of five years, the undergraduate and graduate business schools double their enrollment. The Fordham Institute in International Business offers tuition scholarships to MBA students from foreign countries - the only program of its kind in the nation.
1982
In April, the MBA program earns accreditation from the AACSB.
1986
A select group of 19 students – from Indonesia, Ghana, Tanzania, the Philippines, Canada, the U.S. and Ireland – form the first class in Fordham’s new MBA program for International Executives, taught at the Irish Management Institute in Dublin.
1989
The graduate business school launches a new degree program in communications and media management, the first of its kind in the nation.
1990
Sharon P. Smith, Ph.D., is appointed the dean of the undergraduate business school – the first woman dean at Fordham University and of any Jesuit business school.
1992
The undergraduate business school receives a $150,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education to further develop its GLOBE program, which combines business concentrations with courses in language and cultural studies.
2005
The first 18 undergraduate business students take part in Fordham’s five-week London Summer Program at Brownlow Mews in London Bloomsbury.
2006
The Big Four accounting firms hire nearly 100 graduates of the undergrad Class of 2006.
2007
The undergraduate and graduate schools unite to kick off efforts to develop a curriculum that adequately reflects the global aspirations of students, and making cultural awareness a cornerstone of a Fordham business education.
2009
The Gabelli School becomes a UN signatory school. Widespread institutional innovations extend to faculty training in pedagogy, curricular innovations, expanded scholarly research in responsible business and experiential practica with external partners.
2010
Mario Gabelli, of the undergraduate business school Class of 1965, makes a $25 million gift to the Excelsior | Ever Upward | The Campaign for Fordham – the largest gift in the university’s history. The gift marks a period of expansion and innovation, creating the Gabelli Fellows Program and the Gabelli Center for Global Security Analysis.
The university renames the undergraduate business school the Gabelli School of Business.
2012
A $38 million renovation of Hughes Hall, built in 1891, fits the French gothic building with a digital age interior.
2014
The Social Innovation Collaboratory is launched to create a hub for social impact and sustainability efforts happening throughout Fordham. Fordham University earns designation as an Ashoka U Changemaker Campus.
2015
Fordham unifies the undergraduate, graduate and executive business programs under the Gabelli School of Business, headed by Dean Donna Rapaccioli, Ph.D., dean of the undergraduate business school since 2007.
2016
After a complete renovation, business classes begin at 140 W. 62 St., former home of the Fordham Law Building. The building includes a new and expanded Quinn Library, health and counseling centers for all students, a trading room, classrooms and an innovation lab
2019
Two new online masters programs are offered, marking the Gabelli School’s entrance into an emerging virtual learning space.
2020
The Gabelli School of Business Centennial Celebration